lM9 u ,oT«niOM *WW* THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY -9/77 X \) IUIH0IS HISTMICAl SUBVf/ ' ' * CM CM CM CM oa ^ CM * CM CM CM cC 3 FORT AT BOONESBORO. 1. Colonel Henderson's House. — 2. Stockades. — 3. Colonel Henderson's Kitchen. — 4. Mr. Luttrel's House. — 5. His Kitchen. — 9. Fort Gates. — 14. Houses built for Colonel Hait and Colo- nel Williams. Those places not numbered were cabins. SKETCHES OF HISTORY, LIFE, AM) MANNERS, IN THE WEST. BY JAMES HALL in rwo voli mi>. VOL. I. I'HII. LDKLFHJ A : HARRISON HALL, SS, WALNUT STIt 18:3.). Entered, according to act of congress, in the year 1835, by Harbison Hall, Proprietor, in the clerk's office of the District Co?nt, for the eastern district of Pennsylvania. V N RECSNTLY PUBLISHED AND FOB SALE JJ\ UAHKISO.N HALL. I ll i: AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY, With Sevcntij-six SpU ndid Coloured Engravings. Bl ALEXANDER WILSON. WITH A LIFE OF TUK AC I'lluR — I)V tiEORGE ORD. In prepaiing this edition for the press, the original text of Wilson has been carefully pi d, and in the notes the most important modern improvements in cla9- !i have been pointed out; the errors committed by W ilson, for want of specimens and books of reference, are corrected, and additional eyaonymes given. The birds have been coloured by skilful artists, from the beautiful preparations belonging to the Philadelphia Museum, or from recent specimens procured for the purpose; and it may afford an additional claim to pub- lic favour, to say it has been principally the work of females, The plates, 70 in number, are comprised in one vo- lume, and the letter pi ess in three volumes royal octavo, printed on a very superior paper, and with a new tvpe, made expressly for this purpose. Price lor the whole. The first edition of this work cost upwards of one hundred dollar*; and on the publication of the fifth volume, the foilowftig remarks respecting it appeared in the Port Folio, at that time conducted by Jos. Den- nie, Esq. \ — 11 Wherever it has been seen in Great Britain, it has excited the highest approbation amongsl the most com- petent judges, mingled with surprise that a production so excju kuc from the American press. These ample testimonials, which we h, , render us the more desirous of making the work generally known amon«; our readers, and of contributing to its universal circulation. "So faithful, indeed, are the delineations, so happy has Mr. Wilson been in seizing the peculiarities of every 2 bird in his collection, that not only the colour, the plumage, and the figure, but the physiognomy, the ges- tures, the characteristic movements, and positions, are preserved with an accuracy, which, at a glance, renders us familiar with its character. " These traits are transmitted with equal elegance by the engravers ; and the paper, the type, and every thing connected with the impression, reflect the highest ho- nour on those concerned in it." And again, " It is indeed scarcely possible for the pencil to exhibit more exquisite representations, more faithful resemblances of character and physiognomy, more bril- liancy of plumage, than are contained in this book. Mr. Wilson's descriptions possess their usual characteristics, clear and accurate observation, great artlessness of style, and a warm and affectionate mode of treating the feathered tribes, which is equally honourable to his taste and feeling." TALES OF THE BORDER : By James Hall. The name of the author will be a passport to any book that bears it ; but it may not be known to every body, that these Border Tales are among the most interesting of this distinguished author's productions. It will delight and improve all who read it. — Poulson's American Daily Advertiser. After the perusal of the " New Moon," or " The Pioneer," the reader has more to remember, and to reflect upon, than he can find in most of the novels of the day. There is one characteristic of these tales which deserves to be particularly adverted to — life, society, the passions of man, and the works of nature, are painted with faithfulness, and yet there is no appeal to the reader for his sympathy with crime or vice, nothing which can enlist the youthful imagina- tion on the side of the criminal or the seducer. — Ibid. Also for sale, all the Tales of Judge Hall, bound to match, in four volumes, to wit: LEGENDS OF THE WEST. SOLDIER'S BRIDE. HARPED HEAD. BORDER TALES. The rapid sale of t ho first, has created a demand for eood edition of the work whose title heads this article. The " Legends 1 ' comprise twelve articles, one of which is poetic. The Bcenea of these tales are all lo- cated in the '• far, far West,' 1 and the characters are taken from the aborigines and earlj emigrants. The difficulties and dangers which the first settlers bad to undergo, ere they were i stablished in security, are de- il in gIowing".colours, and with a master hand. The rude and Bavage warfare of the Indians, the secret ambuscade, the midnight slaughter, the confla- gration of the log hut in the praiiic and forest, the shriek- of consuming women and children, are pre- sented to our minds by the author in vivid and iin- wive lai Tie se fal< t possess much interest, as they are founded in fact, and are illustrative of the habits of the Indian, and the life of the hunter. As a writer, Judge Hall is more American than any other we p ss; .. , nes are American; his characters are American, and his language is American. His person igea are invested with an individuality which cannot l>e mistaken, and Ins conceptions and illustra- tions are drawn from the great Store-house of nature. — Diiily Jnf( Uigi it' < r. We have just risen from the perusal of the Soldier's Brid<-. The impression it leaves upon the mind is like that which we receive from the Bight of a landscape of rural beauty and repose — u from the sound of rich and i melody. Every pari r>f tins delightful tale is re- dolent of moral and natural loveliness. The writer be- longs to the Mine class with Irvtng and Paulding; and as, in Ins descriptions, characters and incidents, he ni loses sight of the true and legitimate purpose of fiction, the elevation of the taste and moral character of his readers, he will contribute his full share to the crea- tion of sound and healthful literature. — United States Gazette. The approbation every where elicited by Judge Hall's Legends of the West, has secured a favourable reception for the present volume ; and its varied and highly spi- rited contents of thirteen tales, will be found no less meritorious than his previous labours, — National Ga- zette. We have found much to admire in the perusal of this interesting work. It abounds in correct delineation of character, and although in some of his tales, the author's style is familiar, yet he has not sacrificed to levity the dignity of his pen, nor tarnished his character as a chaste and classical writer. At the present day, when the literary world is flooded with fustian and insipidity, and the public taste attempted to be viiiated by the weak and effeminate productions of those whose minds are as in- capable of imagining the lofty and generous feelings they would portray, as their hearts are of exercising them, it is peculiarly gratifying to receive a work, from the pages of which the eye may cater with satisfaction, and the mind feast with avidity and benefit. — Pittsburg Mercury. MEMOIR OF THE LIFE, with extracts from the writing?, of Mrs. Sarah Hall. The Influence of the Biele in improving the Understanding and Moral Character. By John Matthews, D. D. President of the Theological Semi- nary, at South Hanover, Indiana. With a preliminary essay by the Rev. Albert Barnes. If proof were needed of the power of the Scriptures upon the mind and heart, this volume contains it, beyond the power of gainsaying or cavil. But the history of the truly great in intellect, since the Christian era, affords overwhelming evidence of the fact. Philosophers, poets, and statesmen, have drunk from this fountain of inspiration ; and they have been most successful whose draughts have been the deepest and most frequent. PB EFACE. It has not been the object of the writer to attempt t regular history of the western states, or any con- lvct'il v t been made, from which a work could be compiled. Ignorant and presumptuous travellers have published their own hasty and inaccurate conclusions ; and care- less writers have selected from these such supposed facts, as comported with tluir own theories or notions of probability ; and we hesitate not to say, that the works which have professed to treat of the whole western region, have been failures. Particular departments of this great subject have been well treated. A few of the early residents base published their reminiscences, which are highly in- teresting and valuable, as evidences of the facts which occurred within the observation of the writers. It is to be regretted that so little attention ha* been bestow- ed upon the collection and preservation of these authentic narratives of early adventure 1* b PREFACE. The travels of Pike, Lewis and Clark, and Long, are replete with valuable facts, carefully collected, and reported with scrupulous fidelity ; and a mass of in- formation may be found scattered through the reports of officers, employed by the general government in making surveys, and constructing public works. A few scientific gentlemen have written with ability on subjects connected with the general history of this region. Dr. Drake's admirable description of the valley of the Miami, entitled " A Picture of Cincin- nati," is composed in the calm spirit of philosophical enquiry, and is worthy of entire confidence. The contributions of Colonel M'Kenny, Governor Cass, Mr. Schoolcraft, Mr. Brackenridge, Mr. M'Clung, Mr. Mann Butler, the writer of Tanner's Narrative, and a number of other intelligent individuals, are re- plete with valuable and interesting matter. In naming these writers, however, we design no disrespect to- wards others whose names are omitted, as our object is not to attempt to give a complete list of authorities, but to suggest the names of a few of the most pro- minent. Of the compilations from these and other authori- ties, the statistics embraced in Darby's " Views of the United States," Tanner's " Guide to Emigrants," and the recently published work of Mr. Pitkin, are those which may be most safely relied upon. I'REF M ■)[. When the materials Bhall be accumulated, when the loose facts and » I remini 3, which are now floating along the Btreani of tradition, Bhall be gather- ed together, then i (ha work be prepared as will be creditable to our country; and then will the pioneers, the warriors, and the patriots of the west, take the proud station which they deserve, among the illustrious founders of the American republic. In the mean while, we can only aim at presenting to the public such fragments of history as may be rescued from oblivion by individuals : and such observations a< the few, who are curious in collecting the statistics of their own times, may have been able to accumulate. In the following volumes, therefore, nothing further is attempted, than a collection of tacts, some of which are the result of the writer's own observation, and which are intended rather as examples and illustrations of topics connected with the western states, than as a regular narrative of its history. They are not pre- sented in any connected series, nor with any embellish- ment of style : but are placed before the reader, under the most unambitious form, consistent with convenience of arrangement, and propriety of expression. This is not said to disarm criticism : an author has no right to interpose himself between the critic and his dutv. either to secure his clemency or resent his decision ; but simply to explain to the reader the unpretending character of these volumes, in order thai their title 8 PREFACE. may not awaken expectations which they are not cal- culated to satisfy. Nor is the matter contained in this work presented now to the reader for the first time. It has no claim to originality, but is properly a compilation. During a long residence in the west, the author has, from time to time, employed his pen in the discussion of various subjects relating to this region, and he has now done little more than to collect together the frag- ments, which were scattered through the pages of periodical and other publications. It was due to himself thus to identify and resume his property — the more especially, as these writings have been freely used by a number of compilers, some of whom were not careful to acknowledge the debt, while others have misunderstood, or perverted, the author's mean- ing. In addition to the papers thus republished, there will however be found some facts, which are now laid before the public for the first time, and some valuable documents have been thrown into an appendix. The latter are not specially referred to, by marginal notes, as the attentive reader will readily trace their con- nection with the text. In another work, now in preparation, a collection of facts of more recent date will be laid before the pub- lic. CONTENTS PAGE Introduction, 13 PART I. INTERCOURSE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WITH THE INDIA CHAP. I. Subject stated. — Practice of the first European discoverers in reference to savage nations. 29 CHAP. II. Character and motives of the early discoverers. — Their habit- ual cruelty and bad faith to the savages. 47 CHAP. III. First settlements in North America. — The pilgrims. — Set- tlers of Virginia. 54 CHAP. IV. Conduct of William Pcnn and his followers towards the In- dians. — Amicable intercourse between the French and In- dians in Illinois. 69 CHAP. V. System of intercourse with the Indians established by the British. — Giving presents. — Agents. — System adopted by the American government. — Interference by English agents. •" 10 CONTENTS. CHAP. VI. PAGE Further particulars of the system of intercourse of our go- vernment with the Indians. — Mischievous influence of that system. 1"^ PART II. HISTORY OF THE FRENCH SETTLEMENTS. CHAP. I. First explorers. — Discovery of the Mississippi. — French mis- sionaries.— La Salle's voyages.— Settlements on the Mis- sissippi. — Manners of the French colonists. — Fort Char- tres. 134 CHAP. II. Founding of St. Louis.— History of that colony.— Transfer to Spain.— Attack by the Indians.— Intercourse with N. Orleans.— A gallant exploit.— Other French settlements. 165 CHAP. II. Settlements on the Ohio.— Early movements in Virginia.— Views of Gov. Spotswood.— Settlement of Pittsburg — Travels of Carver.— Expedition of Dunmore. 183 CHAP. III. War of 1763.— Peace of 1764.— Settlements in western Vir- ginia.— Early land titles.— Value of land. — War of 1774. — Lewis's expedition. — Dunmore's treaty. — Heroism of Cornstalk. — Character of pen. Lewis. 191 CHAP. IV. M'Intosh's expedition.— Fort Laurens.— Moravian towns.— Destruction of the Moravians.— Crawford's Campaign. 206 CHAP. V. Manners of the early settlers in western Virginia.— Mode of emigration.— Habits of living.— Hunting.— Weddings*— Religion. 216 CONTEM ■-. 11 PAGE PART III. EVENTS IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF KENTUCKY. CHAP. r. Early discoveries in Kentucky. — Its occupation by the In- dians. — Anecdote of two of the pioneer?. — John Finley's visit. — Those of M'Bride, Dr. Walker, Boone, and others. 233 CHAP. II. Purchases from the Indians. — Treaty of Fort Stanwi.v. — Treaty of Lochaber. — Purchases by individuals. — The Transylvania company. 246 CHAP. III. A proprietary government established. — First meeting' of a convention of delegates. — Their proceedings. 264 INTRODUCTION. But few of the writers who have treated of the western country, rank above mediocrity; and lit- tle of all that has been written on this subject is interesting or true. Books we have had in abun- dance; travels, gazetteers, and geographies inun- date the land ; but few of them are distinguished by literary merit or accurate information. Per- haps a reason for this is to be found in the character of the country. The subjects of inte- rest, in a land which has long been inhabited by a civilised people, are such as are familiar to the student, and, in traveling through such a region, he treads on classic ground with a knowledge of all the localities. He knows the points of attrac- tion, and, having reached them, is learned in their history. If in Italy, he hastens to Rome ; if in the Mediterranean, to Naples, Vesuvius, and the ruins of Carthage; if in Greece, to Athens; if in Palestine, to the Holy Sepulchre. Whether in Europe or in Asia, he finds, at every step, some object to awaken classic recollections, and expa- tiates on a field already la mi liar to his imagina- tion. In collecting information, he but fills an VOL. I 2 14 INTRODUCTION. outline previously sketched out in the seclusion of his closet, and the design itself is but a copy ; for such narratives exhibit, in general, the same pictures, coloured by different hands — each cor- recting the faults, and improving on the failures, of the other. The accomplished writer, in short, who treats of the countries to which we have alluded, must be familiar with their history, their antiquities, their arts, their literature, their every thing which has been open to the observation of the hundreds and thousands who have preceded him ; and, if not altogether devoid of genius, he cannot fail to throw some new light upon sub- jects, which, however hacknied, are always inte- resting, and to which every day brings some change, as each year gives moss to the rock and ivy to the ruin. All this is different in the west. The traveller, who launches his bark upon the silver wave of the Ohio, leaves behind him every object which has been consecrated by the pen of genius. He beholds the beauties of nature in rich luxuriance, but he sees no work of art which has existed be- yond the memory of man, except a few faint and shapeless traces of a former race, whose name and character are beyond the reach even of con- jecture. Every creation of human skill which he beholds is the work of his cotemporaries. Ail is new. The fertile soil abounds m vegetation. The forest is bright, and rich, and luxuriant, as INTRODUCTION. 15 it came from the hands of the Creator. The hundred rivers, that bear the treasures of western industry to the ocean, present grand and impos- ing spectacles to the eye, while they fill the mind with visions of the future wealth and greatness of the lands through which they roll. But they are nameless to the poet and historian; nei- ther song nor chivalry has consecrated their shores. The inhabitants are all emigrants from other countries; they have no ruins, no traditions, no- thing romantic or incredible, with which to regale the traveller's ear. They can tell of their own weary pilgrimage from the land of their fathers — of exploits performed with the rifle and the axe — of solitary days and fearful nights spent in the wilderness — of sorrow, and sickness, and pri- vation, when none was near to help them — and of competence and comfort, gained by years of toil and suffering; but they have no traditions that run back to an illustrious antiquity. Scenes and objects of interest occur at every step, but they are of a character entirely new. All that the traveller tells must be learned upon the spot. The subjects are such as appeal to the judgment, and require the deliberate exercise of a cool and discriminating mind. The author has not now to examine the conflicting or con- forming opinions of others, but to form a decision for himself upon matters which have not pre- 16 INTRODUCTION. viously been investigated. He must describe a new country, with its various features and pro- ductions — a new people, with novel laws, habits, and institutions. He is not now in Italy or France, surrounded by the illustrious dead, and scarcely less illustrious living, where the canvass glows, and the marble speaks, where every grove shadows the tomb of a martyr, a hero, or a poet ; and where every scene awakens a familiar image or a poetic thought. A vast but silent scene sur- rounds him. No object speaks to his classic re- collections. The face of the country, its climate, productions, and industry, must be described; and, to do this, he must dwell long and examine patient- ly. Books he will find, it is true, but they are the hasty productions of incompetent writers, whose opinions are generally wrong, and whose observa- tions are confined to a few subjects of minor in- terest. To acquire an adequate knowledge of such a country, requires extensive personal observation. It is necessary to examine things instead of books, to travel over this wide region, to become acquaint- ed with the people, to learn their history from tra- dition, and to become informed as to their manners and modes of thinking, by associating with them in the familiar intercourse of business and domes- tic life, There is no other mode of collecting facts in relation to a country whose history has never been written, and with regard to which no IN i K<( < riON". accurate printed statistics, embracing tlie whole region, are in existence. \v\ the country affords ample materials. In the historical department a wide and various held is opened. The history of the western country lias never been barren of incident. The valley of the Mississippi has been the theatre of hardy ex- ploit and curious adventure, throughout the whole period of our national existence, and its fertile plains present at this time a wide field of specula- tion. To whatever point in the annals of this immense region we turn, we find them fraught with strange, and novel, and instructive matter. If we trace the solitary path of the fearless Boone ; if we pursue the steps of Shelby, of Clarke, of Logan, and of Scott, we find them beset with dan- gers so terrible, adventures so wild, and achieve- ments so wonderful, as to startle credulity, and we encounter tastes, and habits, and sentiment*, peculiar to our own frontier. In the disastrous campaigns of Harmar and St. Clair, and the bril- liant successes of Clarke and Wayne, there is a sufficiency of those vicissitudes which enliven the narratives of military daring, while a host of lesser worthies present respectable claims to our applause. "Grim visaed war** lias so recently u smooth'd his wrinkled front," in this vast terri- tory, that thousands of living witnesses remain to show their scars and attest its dangers. The time is within memory when every dwelling was a for- 2* IS rxTBODUCTiors-. tress, when to fight -pro arts tt fods° — for our hearths and altars — was not merely the poet's figure, but the literal and constant business of a whole people, when every father defended his own threshold, and even mothers imbrued their hands in blood to protect their offspring. Few of these events will live on the disrnified we of national history. They formed no part of any national war. either for independence or tor conquest : they neither a :ed nor retard- ed our march to national greatness : they brought no blot, and added tut little tame, to the federal tcheon. They .reserved chiefly in tra- dition, and will form a rich vein of romantic ad- venture for the future novelist and poet. But. although the historian of our common republic may not record them, they should find an ho- nourable place in the annals of the respective stal ; They belong to them and to their his- tor The shores of the Mississippi, and its tributary streams. present to the world a singular and most enchanting picture — one which future ages will contemplate with wonder and delight. The cele- with which the soil has been peopled, and the harmony which has prevailed in the erection of governments, have no parallel in history, and seem to be the effect of magic, rather than of human asency. Europe was at one time overrun bv numerous hordes, who. rushin? like a torrent INTKODrCTI from the north, in search of a more genial clinv captured or expelled the effeminate inhabitant I ind planted colonies in its richest pro- but these were sar: _ with the sword, and ruled with 1 of i: The •• arm of flesh" was risible in all their op- tion- ir colo •il was peopled with an exotic population: but here the parallel The cou. - ined } in held the blood-stained soil produced nothing but - man and steel, the soldier and his sword." What a contrast does our happy countr sent to scenes like these ! It remained for v, exhibit to the world the novel spectac :*o- ple cominz from v ring in politics, and _ wn qui' _ tions. and enacting" laws, with v>dshed or dissension. > as there an experiment of 2Teater moral more harmonious or :i. Within a here has been much cur wakened in the mine - .-encan people, in relation to the recent history and pre- sent state of their count: __ tor in- dependence, so brilliant in ierem important in its : :)2r to national pride in all its details, long :b*-d the sym- aes and occupied the thou r our coun- 20 INTRODUCTION. trymen. From that period they drew their brightest recollections ; to that period they re- ferred for all their examples of national virtue. There was a classic purity and heroism in the achievements of our gallant ancestors which hal- lowed their deeds — but there were also substan- tial comforts and privileges secured to us by these disinterested patriots, which called forth all our gratitude, and in some measure blunted our per- ceptions of more recent and cotemporary events. With the recollections of Bunker's Hill and Brandy- wine before him, what American exulted in the trophies of an Indian war ? What political trans- action could awaken the admiration of those who had witnessed the fearful energies which gave existence to a nation ? What hero or statesman could hope to win the applause of a people whose hearts dwelt with reverence upon the exalted standards of civil and military greatness exhibited in the founders of the American republic? Those luminaries, while they shed an unfading lustre on their country, cast a shadow over succeeding events and rising men ; but their mantles silently fell upon the shoulders of their successors, who, with unpretending assiduity, pursued the course which was to consummate the glory of the nation. The excitement caused by those splendid na- tional events has passed away, and they are now contemplated with calmness, though still ■r lNTKoori i lOW. 21 w i 1 1 1 admiration. Other Incidents have occurred in our history, sufficiently striking to attract atten- tion. Of these the settlement and growth of the country lying west of the Alleghany mountains, are among the most important, and those which, perhaps, are destined to affect, more materially than any other, the national character, institu- tions, and prosperity. But a few years hare elapsed since the fertile regions watered by the beautiful Ohio began to allure the footsteps of our countrymen across the Alleghany mountains. Covered with boundless and protected by Alpine barriers, terrific to the eye. and almost Inaccessible to the most adventurous loot, this lovely country remained not only uninhabited, but wholly unexplored, until Boone and his associates resolved to subdue and people it. The dangers and inquietude of a border life presented no obstacles to the adven- turous spirit of the first settlers ; nor were such hardships altogether new to those who thus vo- luntarily sought them. They were generally men inured to danger, or whose immediate pre- decessors had been, what they themselves now became, warriors and hunters. The revolutionary war. which had just termi- nated with infinite glory to the American arms, had infused a military spirit into the whole nation, besides affording to all whose bosoms glowed with the love of liberty, or .-welled with the aspirations 22 INTRODUCTION. of ambition, opportunities of acting a part, how- ever trivial, in the bloody but interesting drama. With the return of peace, when our citizens re- sumed their domestic avocations, cheerfully aban- doning the arms they had reluctantly assumed, the inhabitants of the western frontiers alone formed an exception to the general tranquillity. Here the tomahawk was still bathed in gore : the husbandman reaped his harvest in the garb of the soldier, and often forsook his plough to mingle in the tumult of the battle, or enjoy the dangerous vicissitudes of the chase. Of these hardy woodsmen, or their immediate descendants, was composed that gallant band of pioneers, who first peopled the shores of the Ohio, men whose infant slumbers had been lulled by the midnight howl of the panther, and to whose ears the war-whoop of the Indian was as familiar as the baying of the faithful watch-dog. To such men home has no indissoluble tie, if that word be employed in its usual sense, as referring to local attachments, or implying any of those associa- tions by which the heart is bound to a spot en- deared by fond recollections. The dwelling-place of the woodsman is a frail cabin, erected for tem- porary shelter, and abandoned upon the lightest cause. His home is in the bosom of his family, who follow his erratic footsteps, as careless of danger, and as patient under privation, as him- self. INT.TODICTIOX. 28 With these men were mingled B few others. whose character ranked higher in the scale of civilisation, and who gave a tone to the manners of the new settlements, while they furnished the people with leaders in their military, as well as their civil afiairs. Several revolutionary officers of gallanl name — many promising young men, seeking, with the eagerness of youthful ambition, for scenes of enterprise more active than the quiet prosperity of their own homes afforded — and sub- stantial farmers from the vicinity of the frontiers, who to the hardihood and experience of the woodsman, added the industry and thrift of rural pursuits — such were the men who laid low the forest, expelled the ferocious Indian and the prowl- ing beast of prey, and possessed themselves of a country of vast extent and boundless fertility. They came in a manner peculiar to themselves; like men fond of danger, and fearless of conse- quences. Instead of settling in the vicinity of each other, insuring to themselves society and pro- tection by presenting the front of a solid phalanx to the foe, they dispersed themselves over the whole land in small companies, selecting the most fertile spots without reference to the locality of others. The tide of emigration, as it is often called, came not like the swelling billows of the ocean, overwhelming all the land with one vast torrent, but like the gradual overflowing of a great river, whose waters at first escape the eene- 24 INTRODUCTION. ral mass in small streams, which breaking over the banks, glide through the neighbouring coun- try by numberless little channels, and forming diminutive pools, swell and unite, until the whole surface is inundated. So came the pioneers. De- pending more upon their valour than their num- bers, these little communities maintained them- selves in the wilderness, where the Indian still claimed dominion, and the wolf lurked in every thicket. Between the settlements were extensive tracts, as desert, as blooming, and as wild, as hunter could wish, or poet could imagine. So long as the frontier was subject to the hostile irruptions of the Indians, the first care of every little colony was to provide for its defence. This was, in general, effected by the erection of a rude fortress, constructed of such materials as the forest afforded, and in whose design no art was displayed, beyond that which the native ingenuity of the forester supplied. A block-house was built of logs, surrounded by a palisade, or picket- work, composed of long stakes driven into the ground, forming an inclosure sufficiently large to contain the people of the settlement, and affording a sufficient protection against the sudden irrup- tions of savage warfare. This was a temporary refuge for all in time of danger ; but it was also the permanent residence of a single family, usually that of the man whose superior skill, courage, or opulence, constituted him, for the time being, a in i K"i.i . nozr. sort of chieftain in tins Utile tribe. For. as in all societies there are master spirits who acquire an iutlui-iii'c over their fellow men, there was always in a frontier settlement, some individual who led the rest lo battle, and who. by Ins address or wis- dom in other matters, came into quiet possession of many of the duties and powers of a civil ma- eristrate. There remain traditions of able strata- gem, and daring self-devotion, on the part of such men, which may be proudly compared with the best exploits of Rome or Greece. When one of these primitive fortifications formed the rallying point oi a numerous population, or was placed at an important point, it was called a "fort :'" but in other cases they were known by the less dignified title of " station."" Of the latter, there were many which afforded protection only to single families, who had boldly disconnected themselves from society, either for the purpose of acquiring pos- session, by occupancy, of choice tracts of land _.iin a scanty emolument by supplying the wants of the chance travellers who occasionally penetrated into these wilds, and who accomplished their journeys to the most distant settlements, as a general penetrates to the capital of an enemy, by advancing from post to post. Such was the general character of the first settlers who followed the adventurous footsteps of Boone; and whose exploits were not confined to the forests of Kentucky. From the shores of the VOL. I 8 26 INTRODUCTION. Ohio, the hardy pioneers moved forward to those of the Wabash, and from the Wabash to the Mis- sissippi, subduing the whole country, and pre- serving in Ohio. Illinois, and Missouri, the same bold outlines of character which they first ex- hibited in Kentucky. If we trace the history of this country still further back into the remote periods of its dis- covery and earliest occupation of European ad- venturers, a fund of interesting though somewhat unconnected information is presented. We are favourably impressed with its features and cha- racter, by the manner in which the first travellers invariably speak of its fertility and beauty. The Spaniards, who discovered the southern coast, called it Florida, or the land of flowers ; the French, who first navigated the Ohio, named it the Beautiful river, and La Salle, when he beheld the shores of the Illinois, pronounced them a ter- restrial paradise. The imaginations of those ad- venturous spirits warmed into a poetic fire, as they roamed over the extensive plains of the west, re- posed in its delightful groves, or glided with hourly increasing wonder along those liquid highways, which have since become the channels of com- merce as mighty in its extent as it has been rapid in its growth. The French were the first allies and earliest friends of our nation : and of all the emigrants from foreign countries, they most cheerfully sub- INTRODUCTION. 27 mil to our laws, and most readily adopt our manners and language. They engraft them- selves on our stock, and take a deep root in our affections. It is more than a century since a colony of that nation sell led at Kaskaskia. a thousand miles from the ocean, a thousand miles from any community of civilised men. Here they flourished for many years, increasing in wealth and population, cultivating the most amicable relations with the Indian tribes, and enjoying a more than ordinary portion of health, prosperity, and peace. Living so long in a situa- tion thus insulated, and having but little com- merce with the civilised world, they imbibed many peculiar customs and traits of character, to which their descendants still adhere with sin- gular tenacity. They preserved the gaiety, the content, the hospitality of their nation — but their houses, their language, their agriculture, their trade, and their amusements, are all singularly impressed with characteristic marks of their estranged position, and point them out as a pecu- liar people. As they were not a literary race, tlxy have left few records behind them, but many valuable traditions, fraught with curious matter, are extant among their descendants, which ought to be preserved. The Indians still linger on our borders, and sometimes pass through the settled parts of our country, the squalid and miserable remains of a 28 INTRODUCTION. once warlike population. Can it be that they have not degenerated ? Is it possible that these wretched beings exhibit fair specimens of savage men ? If they have indeed fallen from a better estate, it should be our task to rescue from obli- vion the memory of their former virtues. Our immediate predecessors saw them in their untam- ed state, in the vigour of their power, and the pride of their independence. Many of these have left behind them testimonials of what they saw, and a few, who properly belong to a departed generation, yet linger on the confines of existence, as if destined to instruct the present generation by their knowledge of the past. Passing down to periods still more remote, a boundless field of enquiry is presented to our attention. The inexhaustible fertility of the soil, the salubrity of the climate, and the various and amazing resources of our country, evince its capacity to support a dense population. Such a country was not made in vain, nor can it be believed that it was intended by a wise Creator as the residence of savages and beasts of prey. That it once sustained a numerous population, may be inferred from indications which admit of little doubt ; that the character of that population was superior to that of the present race of Indians, has been suspected upon evidence, which, though far from being conclusive, is worthy of great con- sideration. PART I. INTERCOURSE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WITH THE [NDIAK8. CHAPTER I. Subject stated — Practice of the first European discoverers, in reference to savage nations. The relations of our government with the Indian tribes is a subject which is daily increasing in import- ance ; and reflecting men cannot but perceive th< ruinous tendency of the policy now pursued, and the absolute necessity of a speedy and radical change. The existence, within our territorial limits, of tribes acknowledged to be independent, involves in itself a paradox ; while the details of our negotiations with them, and of our legislation with respect to them, are full of the strangest contradictions. We acknowledge them to be sovereign nations, yet we forbid them from making war upon each other ; we admit their purely allodial title to their lands, their unlimited power ovei them while they remain theirs, and their full possession of the rights of self-government within them. — vet we restrain them from selling those landf iiv hut ourselves; we treat with them as with free 30 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. states, yet we plant our agents, and our military posts among them, and make laws which operate within their territory. In our numerous treaties with them, we acknowledge them to be free, both as nations and as individuals, yet we claim the power to punish in our courts, and by our laws, aggressions committed within their boundaries, denying to them even a con- current jurisdiction, and forbidding them from adjudi- cating in their tribunals, upon the rights of our citizens, and from vindicating the privileges of their own. We make distinctions, not merely in effect, but in terms, between the white man and the Indian, of the most degrading character ; and at ■ the moment when our commissioners are negotiating with their chiefs solemn leagues, involving the most important interests, pledging to them the faith of our govern- ment, and accepting from them similar pledges, we reject those same chiefs if offered as witnesses in our courts, as persons destitute of truth — as creatures too ignorant to understand, or too degraded to practise, the ordinary rules of rectitude. This simple exposition, of a few of the leading fea- tures of our intercourse with the Indians, must satisfy every rational mind that so unnatural a state of things cannot be lasting ; that any set of relations founded upon such principles must be unjust, unprofitable, and temporary ; and that, although in the infancy of our government it might have been excusable in us to adopt such a policy towards our savage neighbours as their barbarities, or our weakness, might have forced upon us, it becomes us now as a great and enlightened people, to devise a system more consistent with our \ -KKT( BM OF Till' WEST. 31 national dignity, and bettor adapted to advance the interests of the reepectife parties. To persons loading in the Atlantic itates, this sub- ject will probably present itself entirely in a spceula- tive point of view ; while the inhabitants of the front i< t. whose interest- are more directly concerned, may consider it in ■ more practical light, as involving questions of expediency, rather than of principle. We would wish to avoid both these extremes, and to take such a view of the subject as shall be both prac- tical and just ; and while we look at the Indians as rational beings, and their tribes as social communities, having inherent and indefeasible rights, to consult also the character, dignity, and advantage, of our own peo- ple and government. We do not assume to have made any new discovery, when we assert, that there are more popular errors in existence, in respect to the Indians, than in regard to almost any other matter which has been so much and so frequently discussed. These have arisen partly out of national antipathies, partly out of the misrepre- sentations of interested persons, and partly out of the nature of the subject, which is intricate in itself, and delicate in many of its bearings. The usual mode of disposing of the question, or rather of getting rid of it, 1)\ a— citing that the Indians are savages, not capable of civilisation, not to be trusted, nor to be dealt with as rational beings, is unchristian and unphilosophical. We cannot assent to such a conclusion without dis- carding the light of revelation, the philosophy of the human mind, and the results of a vast deal of experi- mental knowledge. The activity of body and mind \ 32 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. displayed by the Indian in all his enterprises ; the propriety and closeness of reasoning in most of their speeches, and the sublimity and pathos of many of them, sufficiently establish the claims of this race to a respectable, if not to an exalted station in point of intel- lect ; and we have no reason to believe that they have worse hearts, more violent passions, or more obstinate prejudices, than any of the rest of the human family. Why is it then, that they are savages 1 Why have they not ascended in the great scale of civil subordi- nation? Why are they ferocious, ignorant and brutal, while we, their neighbours, are civilised and polished ? Why is it that, while our intercourse with every other people is humane, enlightened, just — having its foundations fastened upon the broad basis of recipro- city, we shrink with horror from the Indian, we spurn him from our fire-sides and altars — the very ermine of our judges is tarnished by his approach. Why is it, that while the whole world seems united, as it were, in one great and concentrated effort, to spread the light of knowledge, to burst the shackles of super- stition, to encourage industry, and to cultivate the kind, the gentle, and the domestic virtues — one little remnant of the human family stands unaffected by the general amelioration, a dark and lonely monument of irretrievable ignorance — -incorrigible ferocity 1 It is in the hope of answering some of these ques- tions, that this discussion is attempted ; and in order to arrive at any successful result, it is necessary to go back beyond our own times, and to examine events in which we are not immediately concerned; If we refer to the earliest intercourse of the existing SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 33 Christian nations with the barbarous trite*, in different qtrlf in of the world, we find the disposition and con- duct of the latter to he** been generally timid and p iMe, and that tlie first breaches of harmony arose out of the aggressions committed by the former. When, therefore, we ■penh atom present lehil isns with them as growing out of necessity, and as resulting naturally from the pttth kw e— and ferocity of the enrage cha- racter, we assume a position which ifl not supported by the facts. That a great allowance is to be made for the disparity between civilised and ravage nations, i- true; and it is equally true, that the same degree of confidence and cordiality cannot exist between then, as between nations who acknowledge a common religious, moral, and international code, which ope- rates equally upon both the parties. But this does not preclude all confidence ; nor prove the Indian destitute of moral virtue and mental capability. On the contrary, it must be admitted, that the Indians, in their primitive state, p la higher moral cha- racter than now belongs to them, and that they have been degraded in some degree, bv their intercourse with civilised men ; and we ought, in all our dealings with them, to endeavour, as well to atone for the injury done to them and to human nature, by our departure from Christian principles, as to bring them back to the same state of moral dignity in which we found them. It may be well to establish some of the positions we have taken, before we proceed any fur- ther ; and in so doing we do not design to cast any imputation upon our own government. The great mistakes in policy, and the monstrous crimes commit- 34 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. ted against the savage races, to which we propose to allude, have been perpetrated by almost all civilised nations, and our own government has been in this respect, less criminal than any other. Indeed, we know of no deliberate act of cruelty or injustice towards the tribes, with which we are chargeable as a people. On the contrary, our policy has been mode- rate and just, and distinguished, as we shall show, by a spirit of benevolence. We only complain that this spirit has been misdirected, and that, with the very- best intentions, we have done great wrong to the aborigines, to ourselves, and to humanity. Let us see how other nations have acted towards savages, what have been the examples set us, and how far they have influenced our conduct, The first discoverers were the Portuguese. Under Don Henry, a prince who in point of knowledge and liberal feeling was a century in advance of the age in which he lived, this people pushed their discoveries into the Canary Islands, the continent of Africa, and the East Indies. They were received with uniform kindness by the natives, who regarded them as a superior race of beings, and were willing to submit implicitly to their authority. Had the Europeans of that day, and their descendants, cultivated an amicable understanding with those simple heathens, and rigidly adhered to a system of good faith and Christian for- bearance, there is no calculating the advantages that might have ensued ; nor is it to be doubted that those ignorant, helpless, and confiding tribes would have yielded themselves, with hardly a struggle, to the teaching of their more intelligent and powerful neigh- narroHsi or the west. 88 bours. It was not destined, however, that euch should be the course of human events. So tar from making the slightest efibrts to establish friendly relations with the savages, the very earliest discoverers exhibited a propensity for wanton mischief towards them, more characteristic of demon- than of men, and which ren- dered them and the religion they professed, ><> odious, that the benevolent e\erti..n- of statesmen and Chris- tians since thai time, have failed to eradicate the deeply rooted prejudices which had been so injudi- ciously and so wickedly excited. Among a simple race, who viewed their visiters with superstitious reverence, as creatures more than human, there must have been a mortifying revulsion of feeling, when they discovered, in those admired strangers, all the vices and wantonness which disgraced the rudest barba- rians, joined to powers which they imagined the gods only to possess. " Their dread and amazement was raised," Bays Lafitau, M to the highest pitch, when the Euro i- tired their cannons and muskets among them, and they saw their companions fall dead at their feet, without any enemy at hand or any visible cause of their destruction. n Alluding to these transactions, Dr. Johnson re- marks: " On what occasion, or for what purpose, muskets were discharged among a people harmless and secure, by strangers, who without any right visited their coast, it is not thought necessary to inform us. The Portuguese could fear nothing from them, and had therefore no adequate provocation; nor is there any reason to believe but that they murdered the negroes in wanton merriment, perhaps only to try 36 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. how many a volley would destroy, or what would be the consternation of those that should escape. We are openly told that they had the less scruple con- cerning their treatment of the savage people, because they scarcely considered them as distinct from beasts; and indeed, the practice of all European nations, and among others, of the English barbarians that cultivate the southern islands of America, proves that this opinion, however absurd and foolish, however wicked and injurious, still continues to prevail." " By these practices, the first discoverers alienated the natives from them ; and whenever a ship appeared, every one that could fly betook himself to the moun- tains and the woods, so that nothing was to be got more than they could steal ; they sometimes surprised a few fishers, and made them slaves, and did what they could to offend the natives, and enrich themselves." {Introduction to The World Displayed). These events commenced about the year 1392, which is the date of the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, by the Portuguese. Chivalry was at its zenith about the same time. It was an age of moral darkness and military violence. Tamerlane, the Tar- tar, was reigning in Persia, and Margaret, the Semi- ramis of the north, in Denmark. It was the age of Gower and Chaucer, the fathers of English poetry, and of Harry Percy, the celebrated Hotspur. About the same time Wickliffe, the morning star of the reformation, had made the first English translation of the Bible, and Huss and Jerome of Prague began to publish their doctrines. The intelligent reader, keep- ins these facts in mind, will be at no loss to account SKETCH Bi I I THE WEST. 37 far ■ course of conduct on the part of the Portuguese towards Africans differing but little from the intnlcr- ■ace, the deception, and the wanton barbarity, which distinguished the intercourse of European nations with each other, and with the orientals. In 1 1! attempt to follow the Spanish conquerors in their desolating progress through the islands and continent of America. Like the Portuguese, they were kindly re- ceived ; like them they repaid kindness witli cruelty. Their footsteps were dyed with bood — crueltv, violence, and lust, marked all their actions. Men seemed to be transformed into ministers of darkness, and acted such deeds in real life, as the boldest and darkest imagina- tion has never ventured to suggest, even in poetic frenzy. Bearing the cross in one hand, and the sword in the other, combining bigotry with militarv rapine, and the thirst for gold with the lust of power, they united in one vast scheme, all the most terrible engines, and worst incentives of crime. We do not know that there is to be found in history, a recital more touching than the account of the conquest of Mexico by Cortes, or than that of Peru by Pizarro. In each of these instances, the conquerors were at first received with hospitality by their confiding vic- tim.-. They each found an amiable people, possessing many of the social arts, living happily under a govern* men! of their own choice, and practising fewer of tin- unnatural rites of superstition than commonly pre- vailed among the heathen. The discoverj and invasion of Mexico by tin' VOL. I. 1 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. Spaniards under Hernando Cortes, occurred in the sixteenth centurv. and the Europeans were not a little surprised at the greatness of the population, and the splendour of the cities. The city of Mexico, exclusive of its suburbs, is said to have measured ten miles in circumference, and contained according to the Spanish writers sixrv thousand houses. Dr. Robertson thinks it did not contain more than that many inhabitants : but that point cannot now be settled, nor is it import- ant. Enough is known to satisfy us that the people had passed from the savage state, in which the subsist- ence of man is chiefly derived from fishing and hunting. and had congregated in large towns. They had a regular government, and a system of laws. The king lived in great state. u He had." says Cortes. M in this city of Mexico, such houses for his habitation, so deserving of admiration, that I cannot sufficiently express their grandeur and excellence : I shall there- fore onlv sav. there are none equal to them in Spain." One of the Spanish leaders, who is styled by Clavi- 2ero. the •• anonvmous conqueror." in consequence of having published a work to which his name is not attached, writes thus : " There were beautiful houses belonging to the nobles, so grand and numerous in their apartments, with such admirable gardens to them, that the sisht of them rilled us with astonish- ment and delight. I entered from curiosity four times into a palace belonging to Montezuma, and having pervaded it until I was weary. I came away at last without havin? seen it all. Around a large court they used to build sumptuous halls and chambers : but ae above all so large that it was capable 40 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. afforded sufficient proofs of the industry and ingenuity of the people. Taking them altogether, the Mexicans had many high and estimable traits in their national character ; and they probably enjoyed in social life as much hap- piness as is usually allotted to man. Speaking of Tascalteca, a city of Mexico, Cortes says, " I was surprised at its size and magnificence. It is larger and stronger than Grenada, contains as many and as handsome buildings, and is much more populous than that city at the time of its conquest. It is also much better supplied with corn, poultry, game, fresh water, fish, pulse, and other excellent vegetables. There are in the market each day, thirty thousand persons, including buyers and sellers, without mentioning the merchants and petty dealers dispersed over the city. In this market, may be bought every necessary of life, clothes, shoes, feathers of all kinds, ornaments of gold and silver as well wrought as in any part of the world ; various kinds of earthen ware of a superior quality to that of Spain, wood, coal, herbs, and medicinal plants. Here are houses for baths, and places for washing and shearing goats ; in short, this city exhibits great regu- larity, and has a good police ; the inhabitants are peculiarly neat, and far superior to the most indus- trious of the Africans." The city of Cholula is described by Bernal Diaz, as " resembling Valladolid," and containing 20,000 inhabitants. Both of these cities were of course vastly inferior to Mexico ; but it is not necessary to detain the reader by a further attempt to prove the civilisation of the Mexicans. If we except the single article of Christian faith, in SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 41 which the Spaniards had the advantage of them, we question whether they were not, immediately previous to their subjugation, in a higher state of civilisation than their oppressors, whether they had not better practical views of civil liberty, more just notions of private right, and more of the amiable propensities and softer virtues of life. Their laws were superior to those of the Greeks or Romans, and their magistrates more just. They punished with death their judges who passed a sen- tence that was unjust or contrary to law, or who made an incorrect statement of any cause to the king or to a superior magistrate, or who accepted a bribe. Any person who altered the measures established in their markets met with the same punishment. Guardians who wasted the estates of their wards were punished capitally. Drunkenness in their youth was punished with death ; in persons more advanced in life, it was punished with severity, though not capitally. A noble- man, who was guilty of this vice, was stripped of his dignity, and rendered infamous ; a plebeian was shaved and had his house demolished. Their maxim was that he who could voluntarily deprive himself of his senses, was unworthy of a habitation among men ; but this law did not extend to the aged, who were allowed to drink as much as they pleased upon their own responsibility. Thev had a good police, and excellent internal regulations. Couriers were maintained, by whom intelligence was regularly and rapidly transmitted. Their highways were annually repaired ; in the moun- tains and uninhabited places, there were houses erected 4# 42 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. for the accommodation of travellers; and they had bridges and boats for crossing rivers. The land was divided by appropriate boundaries, and owned by indi- viduals, and the right of property in real as well as personal estate, was thoroughly understood and re- spected. This subject is curious and highly interesting. Few are aware of the degree of civilisation which prevailed among the Mexicans and South American nations, previous to their conquest by the Spaniards — the intelligence, the kindness, the hospitality, and respectable virtues of the natives, and the atrocious character of the marauders by whom they were invaded, despoiled, and enslaved. One instance, in proof of these assertions, may be found in a late fascinating work of a distinguished American writer, and is so affecting, and strongly in point, that I cannot forbear alluding to it. Vasco Nunez, one of the most celebrated of the conquerors of New Spain, and who, to great intrepidity of charac- ter, is described as having added a share of magna- nimity, not usual among the Spanish captains of that day, had been hospitably received by one of the native princes. With the usual perfidy of his time and country, he made captives of the cacique, his wives, and children, and many of his people. He also dis- covered their store of provisions, and returned with his captives, and his booty, to Darien. When the unfortunate cacique beheld his family in chains, and in the hands of strangers, his heart was wrung with despair : " What have I done to thee," said he to Vasco Nunez, "that thou shouldst treat me thus >KET< IIES OF Till . w I -I 43 cruelly ? None of thy people never came to mv land thai were not fed, and sheltered, and treated with loving kindness. When thou earnest to my dwelling, did I meet thee with a javelin in my hand ? Did I BOl stt meal and drink before thee, and welcome thee AS a brother ? Set me free, therefore, with my family and people, and we will remain thy friends. We will supply thee with provisions, and reveal to thee tin riches of the land. Dost thou doubt my faith I Be- hold my daughter, I give her to thee, as a pledge of friendship. Take her for thy wife, and be assured of the fidelity of her family and her people !" " Vasco Nunez felt the force of these words, and knew the importance of forming a strong alliance among the natives. The captive maid also, as she stood trembling and dejected before him, found great favour in his eyes, for she was young and beautiful. He granted therefore the prayer of the cacique, and accepted his daughter, engaging, moreover, to aid the father against his enemies, on condition of his furnish- ing provision to the colon v. M Careta (the Indian prince) remained three days at Darien, during which time he was treated with the utmost kindness. Vasco Nunez took him on board ships, and showed him every part of them. He displayed before him also the war horses, with their armour and rich caparisons, and astonished him with th» thunder of artillery. Lest he should be too much daunted by these warlike spectacles, he caused the <:ians to perform a harmonious concert, on their instruments, at which the cacique was Lost in admira- Thus having impressed him with a wonderful 44 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. idea of the power and endowments of his new allies, he loaded him with presents, and permitted him to depart. " Careta returned joyfully to his territories, and his daughter remained with Vasco Nunez, willingly, for his sake, giving up her family and native home. They were never married, but she considered herself as his wife, as she really was, according to the usages of her own country, and he treated her with fondness, allowing her gradually to acquire a great influence over him." — Irving. I envy not the man who can read this affecting passage, without mingled emotions of admiration and pity. Who in this case displayed the attributes of savage barbarians ? Was it the daring marauder, who violated the rules of hospitality? Was it the generous chief, who opened his heart and his house with confiding hospitality to the military stranger — who, when betrayed, appeals to his treacherous guest, with all the manly simplicity of an honest heart, mingled with the deep emotion of a bereaved parent and an insulted sovereign — and who, with the mag- nanimous patriotism of a Brutus, gave up his child, a young and beautiful maiden, to purchase the liberty of his people ? Or was it the Indian maid adorned with graces that could win the heart of that ruthless soldier, " willingly for his sake giving up her family and native home," discharging with devoted fidelity the duty of the most sacred relation in life, and achieving by her talents, and feminine attractions, a complete conquest over her country's conqueror? Shame on the abuse of language, that would call such a people savage ! SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 45 At a much later period, and when the Christian world was far more enlightened than in the days of Hernando Cortes, the British commenced their con- quests in India ; yet we do not find that the superior light which they possessed, both religious and political, had any other effect than to make them more refined in their cruelties. They acted over again in the East Indies, all the atrocities which had been perpetrated in New Spain, with this only difference, that they did not pretend to plead the apology of religious fanaticism. The Spaniards attempted to impose on others, and may possibly have succeeded in many instances in imposing upon themselves, the belief that they served God in oppressing the heathen ; for their conquests were made in an intolerant age, when such opinions were prevalent. But the English had no such notions; for some of their best patriots and soundest divines had lived previous to the conquest of India, and the intellectual character of the nation was deeply imbued with the principles of civil and religious liberty before that period. The love of money and of dominion were their only incentives ; and they pillaged, tortured, murdered, and enslaved a people as civilised and as gentle as the Mexicans, without the shadow of an excuse. The disclosures made before the British parliament, at the trial of Warren Hastings, justify these assertions, and subsequent events have shown that our kinsmen across the water have improved but little in their conduct towards their wretched depen- dencies. The Dutch had at one time several colonies ; but our information respecting them is but meagre, for that 46 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. worthy money-making people have always had the knack of keeping their own counsel, and have publish- ed but few of the records of their iniquities. We know enough, however, to satisfy us that the barbarous nations owe them no obligations. Need we pursue the navigators of these and other nations to the different quarters of the globe into which scientific curiosity, mercantile enterprise, and naval skill have penetrated ? Such an investigation would but add new facts in support of the positions we have taken; and we think it unnecessary to burthen an article like this with an accumulated mass of testimony. We prefer to throw out the hints, leaving the intelli- gent reader to make the application, and to draw the proofs from the stores of his own memory. skj i < ass or tiii: nm r. 17 CHAPTER II. The character and motives of the early discoverers — Their habitual cruelty and bad faith towards savage nations. We may pause here to enquire, how it has happened, that wherever the civilised European has placed his fool upon heathen soil, he seems at once to have been transformed into a barbarian. All the refinements of civilised life seem to have been forgotten. His bene- volcnce, his sensibility, his high sense of honour, his nice perception of justice, his guarded deportment, his long habits of integrity, punctuality and kindness, are all thrown aside ; and not only has he been less honest than the savage in his private dealings, but has far out-stripped him in all the worst propensities of human nature — in avarice, revenge, rapine, bloodthirstiness, and wanton cruelty. To the capricious wantonness of the savage, and that prodigality of life which dis- tinguished men accustomed to the restraints of law, and the ties of society, he had added the ingenuity of art, and the insolence of power. The lust of empire, and the lust of money, have given him incentives to crime which do not stimulate the Indian, and his in- tellectual elevation has furnished him with weapons of war, and engines of oppression, which have been wielded with a fearful energy of purpose, and a mon- strous depravity of motive. -Nor were the desperate adventurers, who led the 49 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. van of discovery and conquest in heathen lands, alone implicated in the guilt of these transactions. They were sanctioned by the throne and the church. The pope formally delivered over the heathen into the hands of the secular power, the kings abandoned them to the military leaders, and the nobles, the merchants, the wealthy and reputable of all ranks, became part- ners in the outfit of these nefarious enterprises which were styled voyages of discovery — sharers in the pil- lage, and accessaries in the slaughter, of inoffensive nations. We are struck with astonishment when we see the people of countries professing the Christian faith, having social regulations, and respecting in some sort a code of international law among themselves, thus turned in a moment into ruthless depredators, and trampling every maxim of justice, human and divine. In searching out the moving causes of this appa- rently anomalous operation of the human mind, by which a change of circumstances seems to have pro- duced an instantaneous and radical transformation of character, I remark, in the first place, that the age of discovery was an age of ignorance. None of the great fountains of light had yet been opened to pour out that flood of knowledge which has since penetrated to every quarter of the globe, and to disseminate those pure principles of conduct which now regulate the intercourse of men, and of nations. In Europe the great mass of the people — all of those whose united opinions make up what is called public senti- ment, were alike destitute of moral culture ; the ruler and the subject, the noble and the plebeian, the martial leader and the wretched peasant were equally deficient SKETCIIES OF THE WEST. 40 in literature and science. All knowledge was in the hands of the priests, and was by them perverted to the forwarding of their own selfish purposes. The great secret of their influence consisted in an inge- nious concealment of all the sources of knowledge. The Bible, the only elevated, pure, and consistent code of ethics which the world has ever known, was a sealed book to the people. The ancient classics were carefully concealed from the public eye ; and the few sciences which were at all cultivated, were enveloped in the darkness of the dead languages. No system could have been more ingenious or more successful, than thus to clothe the treasures of knowledge in Ian- guages difficult of attainment, and accessible only to the highborn and wealthy — for as the latter are pre- cisely the persons who seldom undergo the labour of unlocking the stores of learning, and who still less frequently teach what they have acquired to others, or turn their acquisitions to any profitable account, such a system amounted in practice to a monopoly of learning in the hands of priesthood. And it is curious to remark — if I may be indulged in making the re- mark in this place — that the monastic system of edu- cation, thus originating in a foul conspiracy against the intellect of man, and designed to accumulate the stores of knowledge in the hands of a few, and to wither up the vigour and enterprise of the common people in the imbecility of hopeless ignorance, was the plan upon which all the colleges of Europe were at first founded, and is still the plan, with but little variation, of all our great seminaries of learning ; the alumni of vol. i — 5 50 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. which, if they ever acquire distinction, obtain it not by the aid, but in spite, of their college educations. Not only were the people of that day destitute of education, but the intercourse of nations with each other, previous to the discovery of the mariner's com- pass, was extremely limited ; and the wonderful facilities for gaining and diffusing intelligence, afford- ed by the art of navigation, had but just begun to operate in the days of Columbus and Cortes. The little knowledge that existed was perverted and misapplied. Where there was little freedom of thought, and no general spirit of enquiry, precedents were indiscriminately adopted, however inconsistent, and examples blindly followed, however wicked or absurd. The scholar found authority for every crime in the classics of heathen nations, who have left no- thing behind them worthy of admiration, except a few splendid specimens of useless luxury and worthless refinement, and some rare fragments of magnanimity and virtue : while their literature abounds in incentives to ambition, rapine, and violence. The few who read the scriptures wrested the precepts of revelation, and the history of the primitive nations, into authority for their own high-handed aggressions, and because dis- tinctions were made between the Jews and the heathens by whom they were surrounded, presump- tuously or ignorantly supposed that the same relation continued to exist between the true believer and the heretic, and that the latter were " given to them for an inheritance." How manifold have been the crimes perpetrated in the name of religion ! How numerous have been the aberrations fiom rectitude, committed SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 51 under the too common mistake of following the ex- amples of history, instead of being admonished by its warnings ! The era now under contemplation was a martial age. Ambition expended all its energies in the pursuit of military glorv ; the fervours of genius were all conduct- ed into this channel, and, confined in every other direc- tion, burst forth like a volcano, in the flame and violence of warlike achievement. The only road to fame, or to preferment, led across the battle field ; the hero waded to power through seas of blood, or strode to affluence over the carcasses of the slain ; and they who sat in high places were accustomed to look upon carnage as a necessary agent, or an unavoidable incident, to great- ness. The people were every where accustomed to scenes of violence. The right of conquest was uni- versally acknowledged, and success was the criterion of merit. The act of gaining, and the power to maintain by fraud or force, always vested a sufficient title. Private rights, whether of person or property, were little understood, and universally disregarded; and national justice in any enlarged, systematic sense, was neither practised nor professed. Certain chi- valrous courtesies, there were, undoubtedly, practised among the military and the high-born, and gleams of magnanimity occasionally flashed out, amid the gloom of anarchy ; but they afforded no steady light nor warmth. They were the grim civilities of warriors, or the formal politeness of the great, which did not pervade the mass of the people, and tended not to re- fine the age, nor soften the asperities of oppression. It was besides an age of intolerance, bigotry, super- 52 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. stition and clerical despotism ; when those who re- gulated the minds and consciences of men, were monsters of depravity, monuments of perverted taste, intellect, and morals, anomalies in the intercourse of human life — men who lived estranged from society, aliens from its business, strangers to its domestic re- lations, enemies to its best interest, its noblest virtues, itrs kindliest affections ; but who yet presided at the altars, and in the courts of justice, who stood behind the throne and in the closet, who held the heart- strings of the peasant and the peer, and wielded the revenues of empires, while they grasped the hard earnings of the industrious poor. It was in short, the age of the inquisition and the rack ; when opinions were regulated by law and enforced by the stake and the spear; and when departures from established maxims were punished by torture, disfranchisement, and death. Under such auspices, commenced the intercourse of civilised with savage nations ; and unfortunately, the pioneers who led the way in the discovery and colonis- ation of new countries were, with a few bright ex- ceptions, the worst men of their time — the priest, the soldier, and the mariner ; men inured to cruelty, violence, and rapine, and from whose codes of religion, morality, and law, imperfect as they were, the poor heathen was entirely excluded. It is easy, therefore, to discover the motives which governed all their ac- tions. Accustomed to oppress and to cringe, they knew no law but that of self-defence, or self-aggran- disement. They were loose in principle, and unre* strained in the indulgence of their passions. The SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 53 ties that bound them to each other, or to society, were weak ; but with the savage they had no communion of interest or feeling. When we recollect how toting are first impres- sions, and how difficult it is to eradicate a deeply seat- ed prejudice, we need not be surprised that the odious conduct of the first European discoverers should have created repulsive associations in the savage mind, which time has not been able to obliterate. When confidence was repaid by treachery, and kindness by insult, resentment of the most vindictive character was awakened, and all subsequent intercourse has but contributed to widen the breach. The evil example set by the first conquerors, operated with contagious seduction upon those who followed, inducing from generation to generation a similar course of conduct, softened only in the degree of its turpitude, by the general amelioration of the human character, but un- changed in kind. And when we reflect farther how almost impossible it is to soothe the irritation of ex- cited passions ; and to build up social and kind re- lations, in the midst of a chaos of tumult, crime, and violence — it is not difficult to trace out the chain of circumstances, acting with the certainty of cause and effect, which have perpetuated the errors and misdeeds of the first discoverers through the successive genera- tions of their descendants, and operating with equal power upon the unhappy victims of oppression. 54 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. CHAPTER III. First settlements in North America — The Pilgrims — Settlers of Virginia. We have attempted to show what was the public sentiment of all Christendom, in reference to the savage tribes inhabiting the new countries which began to be visited by Europeans, at that period when the singular union of military ardour and commercial enterprise induced the prosecution of so many voyages of discovery and conquest. It is obvious that the first aggression was almost invariably committed by the whites ; yet history does not afford the slightest evi- dence that any public disapprobation was manifested, either by the governments or people of those coun- tries whose adventurers were overrunning the uncivil- ised parts of the world in search of plunder, and in the perpetration of every species of enormity. Savages were not recognised as having any rights. A classic hatred of barbarians, or a holy zeal against unbelievers, animated all classes of society, and sanc- tioned every outrage which was inflicted in the name of religion or civilisation, by lawless adventurers, upon the unoffending inhabitants of newly discovered regions. In the settlement of North America, the conduct of the whites towards the Indians was far less blameable than in the instances above quoted; but SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 58 n was by no means free from violence. The founders of New England were a pious race, who brought with them a political creed far more en- lightened, and a much purer system of moral action, than any portion of Europe had yet learned to tolerate. They were disposed to act conscientiously in their public, as well as their private concerns; and their relations with the Indians were commenced in amity and good faith. Their great fault was their religious intolerance. Theirs was an intolerant age; and it is not surprising that a people who persecuted one another on account of sectarian differences of opinion, should have little charity for unbelievers. They who burned old women for indulging in the innocent pastime of riding on broom-sticks, fined quakers for wearing broad brimmed hats, and enacted, from the purest impulse of conscience, all the other extravagances of the blue laws, may well have fancied themselves privileged to oppress the uncivilised Indian. They could not brook the idea of associating with heathens as with equals. They looked upon them with scorn, and negotiated with them as with inferiors. However a sense of duty might restrain them from open insult or injury, they could not conceal their abhorrence of the persons and principles of their new allies. That a free untamed race, accustomed to no superiors, should long remain in amicable intercourse with a precise sectarian people, who held them in utter aversion, was not to be expected ; and accord- ingly we find that the hollow friendship of these parties was soon interrupted. The stern ancestors of the Warrens, and Putnams, and Adamses, however 56 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. well they understood the fortiter in re, were but indif- ferently skilled in the suaviter in modo. Wars en- sued, and no lasting peace was ever restored, until the Indian tribes were extinguished or driven from the country. We consider this the fairest instance that could be quoted in proof of the universal prevalence of that public sentiment in relation to savages to which we have alluded. " The settlement of New England," says one of the most respectable of our historians, " purely for the purpose of religion, and the propagation of civil and religious liberty, is an event which has no parallel in the history of modern ages. The piety, self-denial, suf- ferings, patience, perseverance, and magnanimity of the first settlers of the country, are without a rival. The happy and extensive consequences of the settlements which they made, and of the sentiments which they were careful to propagate to their posterity, to the church, and to the world, admit of no description." We are not disposed to dispute a word of this propo- sition, extravagant as it may seem. There is a simple yet a sublime beauty displayed in the character of the pilgrim fathers, a purity and steadiness of purpose evinced in the history of their enterprise, an adher- ence to virtuous principle in their action and legisla- tion, which throw a halo of glory around their names, and entitle them to be remembered with veneration. The perversion of public opinion, which could induce such men, themselves the victims of oppression, and the asserters of liberal principles, to treat the savages as brutes, must have been wide spread and deeply seated ; yet such was certainly their conduct. SKETCHES OF THE WEST. ~>7 When we remark the weakness of the first settle- ments in New England, remember that their infant villages were on several oocanoos almost depopulated by famine and sickness, it is obvious that the Indians must have been peaceably disposed towards them, as there were several periods ;it which they could with ease have exterminated all the colonists. We have, however, on this subject, positive evidence. Trum- bull, the historian of Connecticut, who has collected all the oldest authorities with great care, says that " the English lived in tolerable peace with all the Indians in Connecticut and New England, except the Pequots, for about forty years." " The Indians, at their first settlement, performed many acts of kindness towards them. They instructed them in the maimer of planting and dressing the Indian corn. They carried them upon their backs through rivers and waters ; and, as occasion required, served them instead of boats and bridges. They gave them much useful information respecting the country, and when the English or their children were lost in the woods, and were in danger of perishing with cold or hunger, they conducted them to their wigwams, fed them, and restored them to their families and parents. By selling their corn when pinched with famine, they relieved their distresses and prevented their perishing in a strange land and uncultivated wilderness." — Vol. i. p. 57. How did the puritans repay this kindness, or what had they done to deserve it ? Their first act was one which was calculated to create disgust and awaken jealousy. William Holmes, of Plymouth, carried a 58 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. colony into Connecticut, and settled them at Windsor, where he built the first house that was ever erected in that state. A number of sachems, " who were the original owners of the soil, had been driven from this part of the country by the Pequots, and were now carried home on board Holmes's vessel. Of them the Plymouth people purchased the land on which they erected their house." Intruders themselves, in a strange country, they came accompanied by persons towards whom the inhabitants were hostile, undertook to decide who were the rightful owners of the soil, and purchased from the party which was not in pos- session. And what was the consequence 1 The Indians were offended at their bringing home the original proprietors and lords of the country, and the Dutch," — who had settled there before them — " that they had settled there, and were about to rival them in trade, and in the possession of those excellent lands upon the river ; they were obliged therefore to combat both, and to keep a constant watch upon them." Notwithstanding the unhappy impression which some of the early acts of the puritans were calculated to produce upon the minds of the Indians, the latter con- tinued to be their friends. In the winter of 1635 the settlements on Connecticut . river were afflicted by famine. Some of the settlers, driven by hunger, attempted their way, in this severe season, through the wilderness, from Connecticut to Massachusetts. Of thirteen in one company, who made this attempt, one, in passing the rivers, fell through the ice and was drowned. " The other twelve were ten days on their journey, and would all have perished had it not -KETCHES OF THE WEST. 59 been for the mjtfnnrm of the Indians." * * * * •• The people who kept their stations on the river suffered in an extreme degree. After all the help they were able to obtain by hunting, and from the Indians, they were obliged to subsist on acorns, malt, and grain." * * * • >• Numbers of cattle which could not be got over the river before winter, lived through without anv thing but what they found in t he woods and meadows. They wintered as well, or better than those which were brought over." — Winthrop's Jour- nal, p- 88. H It is difficult to describe, or even to conceive, the apprehensions and distresses of a people in the cir- cumstances of our venerable ancestors, during this doleful winter. All the horrors of a dreary wilder- ness spread themselves around them. They were encompassed with numerous, fierce, and cruel tribes, of wild and savage men, who could have swallowed up parents and children at pleasure, in their feeble and distressed condition. They had neither bread for themselves nor children ; neither habitations nor clothing convenient for them. Whatever emergency might happen, they were cut off, both by land and water, from any succour or retreat. What self-denial, firmness and magnanimity, are necessary for such enterprises ! How distressful, in the beginning, was the condition of these now fair and opulent towns on Connecticut river!" — Trumbull's Connecticut, vol. i. p. 63. Yet those M wild and savage men, who could have -wallowed up parents and children, 91 did not avail themselves of this tempting opportunity to rid their 60 SKETCHES OF THE WEST* country of the intruding whites. On the contrary, they proved their best friends, aided those who fled, sustained those who remained, and suffered the cattle of the strangers to roam unmolested through the woods, while they themselves were procuring a pre- carious subsistence by the chase. If ever kindness, honesty, and forbearance were practised with scrupu- lous fidelity, in the face of strong temptation inciting to an opposite course of conduct, it was on this occa- sion. This humane deportment on the part of the Indians seems to have been considered by the puritans as mere matter of course, and as not imposing upon them any special obligation of gratitude, for no sooner did a state of war occur, than all sense of indebtedness to the Indians appears to have been obliterated, and the whites vied with their enemies in the perpetration of wanton cruelty. Within two years after the famine alluded to we are informed by Trumbull that a party under Captain Stoughton, " surrounded a large body of Pequots in a swamp. They took eighty captives. Thirty were men, the rest were women and children. The men, except two sachems, were killed, but the women and children were saved. The sachems pro- mised to conduct the English to Sassacus, and for that purpose were spared for the present* The reader will doubtless feel some curiosity to know what was done with the women and children, who were saved, by those who had massacred in cold blood thirty men, save two, taken prisoners in battle. The same histo- rian thus details the sequel. " The Pequot women and children who had been captivated, were divided SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 61 anions the troops. Some were carried to Connecticut, others to Massachusetts. The people of Massachu- setts 91 nt a number of the women and boys to the West Indies, and sold them as slaves. It was supposed that about seven bundled Pequots were destroyed." 11 This happy event," concludes the historian, alluding to the conclusion of the war, by the extermination or captivity of so many of the Indians, " gave great joy to the colonics. A day of public thanksgiving was appointed ; and, in all the churches of New England, devout and animated praises were addressed to Him who giveth his people the victory, and causeth them to dwell in safety." In the southern colonies, we tind the same conse- quences, resulting from nearly the same causes, evinced however in a somewhat different mode of conduct. The English were kindly received by the natives, but no sustained effort was systematically made by the former to sustain the cordiality so vitally necessary to their own interests. Captain John Smith informs us, that " the most famous, renowned, and ever worthy of all memory, for her courage, learning, judgment, and virtue, Queen Elizabeth, granted her letters patenl to Sir Walter Raleigh for the discovering and planting new lands and countries not actually possessed by any Christians. This patentee got to be his assistants Sir Richard Grenvell the valiant, Mr. William Sanderson a great friend to all such noble and worthy actions ; and divers other gentlemen and marchants, who with all speede provided two small barkes well furnished with necessaries, under the command of Captaine Philip vol. i — 6 62 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. Amidas, and Captaine Barlow. The 27 of Aprill they set sayle from the Thames, the 10th of May passed the Canaries, and the 10th of June, the West Indies," &c. " The second of July they fell in with the coast of Florida, in shoule water, where they felt a most delicate sweete smell, though they saw no land, which ere long they espied," &c. Here we find that the power delegated by the government to these adventurers, was simply for the discovering and planting new lands, not actually pos- sessed by other Christians ; but although the rights of other Christians are thus reserved, no regard seems to have been paid to those of the aboriginal possessors of the countries to be discovered. With respect to them the voyagers were at full liberty to act as their own judgment or caprice might direct. The inhabit- ants received them with confidence. " Till the third day we saw not any of the people, then in a little boat three of them appeared, one of them went on shore to whom we rowed, and he attended vs without any signe of feare ; after he had spoke much though wee vnderstood not a word, of his owne accord he came boldly aboord vs, we gave him a shirt, a hat, wine and meate, which he liked well, and after he had well viewed the barkes and vs, he went away in his owne boat, and within a quarter of a myle of vs in halfe an houre had loaded his boat with fish, with which he came againe to the poynt of land, and there divided it in two parts, poynting one part to the ship, the other to the pinnace, and so departed." — Smith's Hist. Virg. vol. i. p. 82. " The next day came diuers boats, and in one of them SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 63 the king's brother, with forty or fifty men, proper peo- ple, and in their behaviour very ciuil," &c. " Though we came to him well armed, he made signs to vs to sit downe without any show of feare, stroking his head and brest, and also ours, to expresse his loue. After he had made a long speech vnto vs, we presented him with diuers toyes, which he kindly accepted. " A dav or two after shewing them what we had, Granganameo taking most liking to a pewter dish, made a hole in it, hung it about his neck for a brest- plate, fur which he gaue vs twenty deere skins, worth twenty crowns ; and for a copper kettle, fiftie skins, worth fiftie crownes. Much other trucke we had, and after two dayes he came aboord, and did eate and drinke with vs very merrily. Not long after he brought his wife and children," &c. "After that these women had been here with rs, there came doune from all parts great store of people, with leather, corrall, and diuers kinde of dyes, but when Granganameo was present, none durst trade but himself, and them that wore red copper on their heads, as he did. Whenever he came he would signifie by so many fires he came with so many boats, that we might knowe his strength. Their boats but one great tree, which is but burnt in the form of a trough with gins and fire, till it be as they would haue it. For an armour he would haue engaged vs a bagge of pearle, but we refused, as not regarding it, that wee might the better learn where it grew. He was very iust of his promise, for oft wee trusted him, and would come within his day to keepe his word. He sent vs com- monly every day a brace of bucks, conies, hares, 64 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. and fish, sometimes mellons, walnuts, cucumbers, pease, and diuers rootes. This author sayeth, their corne groweth three times in fiue months ; in May they so we, in Iuly reape ; in Iune they sow, in August reape." It is difficult to separate the truth from the fiction in these early histories. There seems to be an inhe- rent propensity for exaggeration in English travellers, which has pervaded their works, and cast a shade upon the national character for veracity, from the earliest times, to the present. We all know that corn cannot be planted either in June or July and reaped in August in any part of our country ; and the story of the " bagge of pearl" is very questionable ; but we may believe the evidence of the voyagers as to the hospitality with which they were received by the na- tives, because in these statements they all agree, and we have ample reason to believe that such was usually the deportment of the aborigines towards the Euro- peans who first visited our shores. The historian of this voyage sums the whole up in the expression, " a more kind loving people cannot be," and adds, " this discovery was so welcome into England that it pleased her maiestie to call this country of Wingandacoa, Virginia, by which name you are now to vnderstand how it was planted, disolued, reuned, and enlarged." In 1585 Sir Richard Grenville, " departed from Plimouth M'ith 7 sayle, for Virginia." On his first arrival, we are told " At Aquascogoc the Indians stole a siluer cup, wherefore we burnt the towne and spoyl- ed their corne, so returned to our fleete at Tocokow." Here we see how the hostilities between the whites SKETCHES OF THE WEST- 65 and the Indians commenced. All the hospitality of those who were before lauded as a " kind loving peo- ple," was effaced by a single depredation, committed most probably l>\ a law loss individual whose act would haw been disavowed by the tribe; and in revenge for the stealing of a silver Clip, a town was burned, and the cornfields of the people destroyed. Dr. William- son, the historian of North Carolina, remarks, "the passionate and rash conduct of Sir Richard Grenville, <<>M the nation main a life. The lair beginning of a hopeful colony was obscured, it was nearly defeated, by resenting the loss of a silver cop." Another voyager, John Brierton, who accompanied Capt (Josnoll in 1690, to Virginia, speaks of the u main ngnes of loue and friendship," displayed by the Indians, M that did help vs to dig, and carry saxafras, and doe any thing they could." "Some of the baser sort would Steele ; but the better sort," he continues, M we found very civill and iust." He describes the women afl fat and well favoured ; and concludes, " The w holesomeness and temperature of this climate, doth not onelv argue the people to be answerable to this description, but also of a perfect constitution of body, actiue, strong, healthful, and very witty, as the sundry toyes bv them so cunningly wrought may well testifie." Captain Smith, who visited Virginia subsequently, found the people " most civill to giue entertainment." He declares that " such great and well proportioned men are seldome scene, for they seemed like giants to the English, yea and to the neighbours, yet seemed of an honest and simple disposition, with much adoe restrained them- from adoring vs as gods." In ano- 6* 66 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. ther place he says, " They are very strong, of an able body and full of agilitie, able to endure to lie in the woods vnder a tree by the fire, in the worst of winter, or in the weeds and grasse, in ambuscade in the som- mer. They are inconstant in every thing, but what fear constraineth them to keepe. Craftie, timerous, quicke of apprehension, and very ingenuous. Some are of disposition fearful, some bold, most cautelous, and savage." " Although the country people be very barbarous, yet haue they amongst them such govern- ment, as that their magistrates for good commanding, and their people for due subjection and obeying, excel many places that would be accounted very civill." — Smith's Hist. vol. i. p. 142. Another early writer on the settlement of Virginia, William Timons, "doctour of divinitie," remarks, " It might well be thought, a countrie so faire (as Virginia is) and a people so tractable, would long ere this have been quietly possessed, to the satisfaction of the adven- turers, and the eternising of the memory of those that effected it." We need not multiply these proofs. History abounds in facts which prove the position we have taken ; and the intelligent reader will readily be able to draw from the store of his own memory the evidence which will convict the white man of being almost invariably the aggressor in that unnatural war, which has now been raging for centuries between the civilised and savage races. Several fruitless attempts were made to plant a colony in Virginia, before that enterprise succeeded. " The emigrants, notwithstanding the orders they received, had never been solicitous to cultivate the SKK I < II ES <»F Till: \\ 1 IS I. good will of the natives, and had neither asked permis- sion when they occupied their country, nor given a price for their valuable property, which was violent lv taken away. The miseries of famine were soon super- added to the horrors of massacre." (Sec Chalmers' Political Annals, under the head of Virginia.) Yet under all the disasters Buffered by that colony, and with repeated examples and admonitions to warn them, they could never bring themselves to entertain suffi- cient respect for the Indians to treat them with civility, or negotiate with them in good faith. Their great error was that they did not consider themselves in their intercourse with savages, bound by the same moral obligations which would have governed their dealings with civilised men. In their deportment they were loose and careless ; they threw off the ordinary restraints of social life ; the decent and sober virtues were laid aside ; and while as individuals they forfeited confidence by their irregularities, they lost it as a body politic, by weak councils and bad faith. It is to be recollected that the colonists were intruders in a strange land ; they had to establish a character. Their very coming was suspicious. There was no reason why the natives should think them better than they seemed ; but many why they might suspect them to be worse. The Indians having few virtues in their simple code, practise those which thev do profess with great punctuality ; among these are truth, and the faithful observance of treaties ; and they could not but lightly esteem those who openly set at defiance all that they themselves hold sacred. That no attempt was made to convert or civilise the aborigines, nor any liberal feeling indulged towards them, will not be 68 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. thought surprising, when we find the colonial governor of Virginia, so late as the year 1760, using the fol- lowing language in a letter to his government : — " I thank God there are no free schools, nor printing, and I hope we shall not have them for these hundred years. For learning has brought disobedience, heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the government. God keep us from both !" Such were the persons by whom the first impression of our character was made upon the Indian mind ! We mention these facts for the purpose of showing that civilised nations have never yet made a fair expe- riment of the practicability of christianising the savage tribes ; for although efforts of this kind have been attempted upon a limited scale, they have every where been preceded and neutralised by injuries and insults of so flagitious a character, as to induce those upon whom they were perpetrated, to look with jealousy upon all subsequent advances, however apparently benevolent, from the same quarter. We do not mean to infer that the breach is so wide that it can never be repaired ; but merely to refute those who tell us that the Indians cannot be civilised, by showing that their assertions are not supported by evidence. Before we could admit a conclusion which would present so strange a paradox in the philosophy of the human mind, it must be shown that civilisation has been pre- sented to them in an amiable aspect, that it has been offered upon terms which they could accept with credit and advantage, and that the invitation has been given by those in whose professions they had some reason to place confidence. SKETCHES OF Till: Wl-l. 69 CHAPTER IV. Conduct of William Pcnn and his followers towards the Indians — Amicable Intercourse between the French and Indians in Illinois. In order to make out the case which we have pro- posed, it is necessary to show not only that the whites have abused the hospitality, trampled on the rights, and exasperated the feelings of the Indians, without any just provocation, but that a contrary course of policy would have been practicable, as well as expe- dient. If the Indians are constitutionally inaccessible to the approaches of kindness, — if they are wholly intractable — if they can form no just appreciation of the conduct of other men, and are incapable of gratitude — the question is at rest. But we apprehend that the Indians might have been conciliated by kindness, just as easily as they were provoked by violence ; and that the foundations of mutual esteem and confidence might have been laid as deep, and as broad, and have been reared up with a solidity as durable, as those of that stupendous fabric of revenge, hatred, and deception which has grown up and is now witnessed with emo- tions of dismay and sorrow by all good men> We think we can prove that we have rightly esti- mated the conduct of emfoed nations, and its influ- ence on the savage tribes, in the instances which we have quoted, by referring to two others in which a 70 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. contrary policy was pursued, and in both of which the results justify our position. The first is the case of William Penn, whose great wisdom and benevolence have never, in our opinion, been estimated as highly as they deserve, and who, however highly he is ap- preciated, has never yet received the full amount of applause which is his due, as a statesman and philan- thropist. In uniting these characters, and acting practically upon the broad principles of justice, he was in advance of the age in which he lived, and was neither understood nor imitated. Even in Pennsyl- vania, his influence expired, and his example was for- gotten, as soon as he ceased to be himself the moving agent of that system which his successors either did not comprehend, or had not sufficient virtue to ap- prove. This enlightened man in his public conduct consult ed his conscience, his sense of right and wrong, and his knowledge of human nature. He believed that the Indians had souls. He treated them individually as human beings, as men, as friends ; and negotiated with their tribes as with independent, dignified, and responsible public bodies, trusting implicitly in their honour and pledging in sincerity his own. He was a man of enlarged views, whose mind was above the petty artifices of diplomacy, which were considered justifiable by the statesmen of his day. He not only knew that such arts were dishonest, and condemned them as against conscience, but he also saw clearly that honesty was the best policy. " His great mind was uniformly influenced in his intercourse with the aborigines by those immutable principles of justice, skkk BOH OF ill i : wr>r. 71 which every where, and for all purposes, must be regarded as fundamental, if human exertions are to be crowned with noble and permanent results. ( Vaux's Anniversary Discourse.) In the 13th, 14th, and 15th sections of the constitution of his colony, it was pro- vided, as follows: " No man shall, by any ways or means, in word or deed, affront or wrong an Indian, but he shall incur the same [« n.tlly of the law as if he had committed it against his fellow planter, and if any Indian shall abuse, in word or deed, any planter of the province, he shall not be his own judge upon the Indian, but he shall make his complaint to the governor, or some inferior magistrate near him, who shall, to the utmost of his power, take care with the kin" of the said Indian, that all reasonable satisfaction be made to the injured planter. All differences be- tween the planters and the natives shall also be ended by twelve men; that is, six planters, and six natives; that so we may live friendly together as much as in us lieth, preventing all occasions of heart-burnings and mischiefs," and that " the Indians shall have liberty to do all things relative to improvement of their ground, and providing sustenance for their fami- lies, that any of the planters shall enjoy." v -. In these simple articles we find the very essence of all good government : equality of 'ight*. Instead of making one rule of action for the whites and another for the Indians, the same mode and measure of justice is prescribed to both ; and while his strict adherence to the great principles of civil and religious freedom, entitle the virtuous Penn to the highest place as a lawgiver and benefactor of mankind, it justly earned 72 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. for him from the Indians especially, the affectionate title by which they always spoke of him : " their great and good Onas." The result was, that so long as Pennsylvania remained under the immediate govern- ment of its founder, the most amicable relations were maintained with the natives. His scheme of govern- ment embraced no military arm ; neither troops, forts, nor an armed peasantry. The doctrine of keeping peace by being prepared for war, entered not into his system ; his maxim was to avoid " all occasions of heart burnings and mischiefs," and to retain the friendship of his neighbours by never appearing to doubt it. The Indians, savage as they are represented to be, and as indeed they are, were awed and won by a policy so just and pacific ; and the Quakers had no Indian wars. The horrors of the firebrand, and the tomahawk, of which other colonists had such dreadful experience, were unknown to them, and they cultivated their farms in peace, with no other armour than the powerful name of Penn, and the inoffensiveness of their own lives. In Watson's " Account of Bucking- ham and Solebury," (in Pennsylvania,) published in the Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, we find the following striking remarks : — " In 1690, there were many settlements of Indians in these town- ships." * * # * " Tradition reports that they were kind neighbours, supplying the white people with meat, and sometimes with beans and other vege- tables ; which they did in perfect charity, bringing presents to their houses, and refusing pay. Their children were sociable and fond of play. A harmony arose out of their mutual intercourse and dependence. SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 7'1 Native simplicity reigned, in its greatest extent* The difference between the families of the white man and the [ndian, in many respects, was n<»t great — when to live was the greatest hope, and to enjoy a bare sufii- eiencj the greatest luxury." (Vol i. part 2, p. 298.) This passage requires no comment ; bo strongly Mer- it contrast with the accounts of tin- other new settle- ments, snd so fully does it display the fruits of a pru- dent and equitable system of civil administration. But we do not rest our case here. There are mam facts connected with the settlements upon the Dela- ware river, which are extremely interesting. The Swedes, who were the first occupants, date back as far as the year 1631, and remained in possession of a number of places, for something like forty years, pre- vious to the arrival of Penn. That they lived in har* mony with the Indians is obvious from two facts, which must be received as the best evidence in the absence of all positive proof on the subject ; the one is the fact that they did exist and prosper, and were not exterminated, and the other that Penn found the Indians friendly, notwithstanding their long intercourse with the Swedes. Had the conduct of the latter been oppressive, or their intercourse with the savages interrupted by hostilities, Penn would not have been received with the cordiality and confidence which marked his first interviews with the tribes, and cha« racterised all his relations with them. It i- a singular circumstance that the quakers had so much confidence in their own system of peace and forbea ranee, that they did not erect a fort, nor organ* my militia for their defence, but went on quietl) VOL. I 7 74 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. building, clearing land, farming, and trading, not only without actual molestation from the Indians, but with- out any apprehension of danger. In the journals and fragments of history handed down to us, from these early settlers, we read affecting accounts of their sufferings from sickness, poverty, hunger, exposure — from every cause which ordinarily afflicts the helpless infancy of a colony, except war — but we read of no wars, no rumours of war. Of the Indians but little is said. They are only mentioned incidentally, and then always with kindness. " In those times," says one of their historians, " the Indians and Swedes were kind and active to bring in, and vend at moderate prices, proper articles of subsistence." An instance is told of a lady, Mrs. Chandler, who arrived at Philadelphia with eight or nine children, having lost her husband on the voyage out. She was lodged in a cave on the bank of the river, and being perfectly destitute, was a subject of general compassion. The people were kind to them, and none more so than the Indians, who frequently brought them food. " In future years," says our authority, " when the children grew up, they always remembered the kind Indians, and took many opportunities of befriending them and their families in return." An old lady, whose recollections have been recorded by one of her descendants, was present at one of Penn's first interviews with the " Indians and Swedes" — for she names them together, as if they acted in concert, or at least in harmony. " They (the Indians and Swedes) met him at or near the present Philadelphia. The Indians, as well as the whites, had severally prepared the best entertainment SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 75 the place and circumstances could admit. William Peon made himself endeared to the Indians by his marked condescension and acquiescence in their wishes. He walked with them, sat with them on the ground, and ate with them of their roasted acorns and homany. At tlii— they expressed great delight, and some began to show how they could hop and jump: at which exhi- bition. William Perm, to cap the climax, sprang up and beat them all !" The date of Peon's patent was in 1681, and he governed Pennsylvania until 1712. In 1744, a peti- tion was addressed by the city council of Philadelphia to the king, "Setting forth the defenceless state of said city, and requesting his majesty to take the de- fenceless condition of the inhabitants into consideration, and afford them such relief as his majesty shall think fit." This is the first record that we find, in which allusion is made to military defences in that colony. The other instance which we shall adduce, we deem to be particularly apposite, as it occurred at the same period, under similar circumstances, and among a peo- ple the very reverse of the quakers in character, and who had not the slightest communication or connec- tion with them. The French settled at Kaskaskia previous to the year 1700. We cannot fix the precise date ; but there are deeds now on record in the public offices at that place, which bear date in 1712, and it is evident that several years must have elapsed from the first settling of the colony, before regular trans- fers of real estate could take place, and before there could have been officers authorised to authenticate such proceedings. It is the general understanding of 76 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. the old French settlers, and we suppose the fact to be so, that Philadelphia, Detroit, and Kaskaskia, were settled about the same time. The French in Illinois lived upon the most amicable terms with the Indians. Like the quakers, they kept up a mutual interchange of friendly offices, treating them with kindness and equity, and dealing with them upon terms of perfect equality. They even intermarried with them — which the quakers could not do, without being turned out of meeting — and showed them in various ways that they considered them as fellow creatures, having a parity of interests, principles, and feelings with themselves. " Their nearest civilised neighbours were the English on the shores of the Atlantic, distant a thousand miles, from whom they were separated by a barrier then insurmountable, and with whom they had no more intercourse than with the Chinese." They had five villages on the Mississippi ; Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, Saint Philippe, Fort Chartres, and Cahokia. Fort Chartres was a very strong fortification, and might have protected the village of the same name adjacent to it ; there was a fort at Kaskaskia, — but it was small, and being on the opposite side of the river from the town, could have afforded little protection to the latter from an attack of the Indians ; the only other fortress was at Cahokia, and is described by an early writer as " no way distinguished except by being the meanest log house in the town." The villages of Prairie du Rocher and Saint Philippe had no military defences. Yet we do not hear of burnings and scalp- ings among the early settlers of that region. Now and then an affray occurred between a Frenchman KETCHES OF THE WEST. 77 ;iik1 an Indian, and occasionally a lift Was lwld have been a strange anomaly in the history of warriors and hunters, had no personal conflicts ensued. But these affairs did not disturb the general harmony. The Indians even suffered themselves to be baptised ; and at one time a large portion of the Kaskaskia tribe professed the Roman Catholic faith. The results are known to every reader of Ameri- can history* No sooner did Penn cease to rule in Pennsylvania than that colony he nan to be desolated bv Indian wars. With him ceased all good faith with the tribes. His successors had neither his talents, his honesty, nor his firmness; they followed none of his precepts, nor kept any of his engagements. Rum and gunpowder were freely used in the colony, and sold to the Indians. The planters began to arm in self- defence. Occasions of offence were frequent, and no effort was made to prevent them. The " great and good Onas" was no longer there to pour out his kind spirit, like oil, upon the waves of human passion. Hostilities ensued; the frontiers of Pennsylvania suffered all the horrors of border war, and the sentiment expressed by William Penn in 1G*2, proved to be prophetic: "If my heirs do not keep to God, in justice, mercy, equity. 7- 76 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. and fear of the Lord, they will lose all, and desolation will follow." The same result occurred on the Mississippi, in Illinois. The amiable French lived in peace with the Indians for a whole century ; but as soon as the " Long Knives" began to emigrate to the country, hostilities commenced, and continued until the whites gained the complete mastery. In order to give full weight to these facts, and to our argument, it must be recollected that national prejudices are most deeply rooted and most lasting among unenlightened people. Those simple and un- lettered tribes whose only occupations are war and hunting, hand down their traditions with singular fidelity from generation to generation. The only mental culture which the children receive, consists in repeating to them the adventures of their fathers, and the infant mind is thus indelibly impressed with all the predilections and antipathies of the parent ; while their traditions are spread from tribe to tribe, by the historical tales and songs, repeated at their great councils. Among them, too, revenge is a hallowed principle, sucked in with the mother's milk, and justified by their code of honour, and the precepts of their religion ; the wound inflicted upon the father rankles in the bosom of the child, and is only healed when recompense is made, or retaliation inflicted. We infer, then, that we owe the unhappy state of feeling which exists between the Indians and our- selves, to injuries inflicted on them and prejudices excited, by the discoverers and first colonists ; and to the want of sincere, judicious, and patient exertions for reconciliation on our part. SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 79 CHAPTER V. System of intercourse with the Indians established by the British — Giving presents — Agents — System adopted by the American government — Interference by English agents. We turn now to a later period, and to another branch of our subject, for the purpose of showing that the Indian mind, already poisoned against us, has been corrupted by the whites by the inculcation of bad principles and wrong views ; and that the honest feelings of resentment at first indulged, have, by our agency, become mercenary and vindictive. At a very early period, the English and French colonists were engaged in wars with each other, and both parties endeavoured to conciliate the aborigines, and to secure their co-operation by making them pre- sents. We have no evidence, that previous to our negotiations with the tribes, they were in the habit of making valuable presents to each other, upon such occasions. Among the oriental nations, from whom they are supposed by some to be descended, gifts of great value are made upon all solemn public conven- tions, legal decisions are bought with a price, and offices and honours put to sale. Something of the same kind prevailed in South America, where the natives were wealthy ; but the North American Indians were poor, and we suspect that among them presents were only made at their treaties in token of 80 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. sincerity, and without any regard to the value of the offering. We intend to apply this observation, of course, to cases where the parties treated upon terms of perfect equality ; for among all nations, civilised and savage, the principles of reciprocity are some- times trampled under foot, and a subdued party usually purchases peace. It is also true, that treaties have always been least faithfully observed, among those nations where custom requires the weaker party to purchase the friendship of the stronger by large bribes; because the faith that is bought and sold is never sincere ; one party is governed by fear, the other by rapacity, and while the one is always seek- ing pretences to impose new exactions, the other is ever watching to obtain revenge or indemnity. Thus it was with us and our Indian neighbours. The presents which at first were voluntarily given, and received with gratitude, soon became periodical, and began at last to be demanded as of right. The Indians acted precisely as the pirates of the Barbary States have always done under similar circumstances. They saw their situation enabled them to harass the whites, and that the latter were always willing to avert their hostility by the payment of a valuable considera- tion. Implements of war, and articles of luxury, were introduced among them, to which they had previously been strangers ; new wants were created, without the simultaneous creation of any means to supply them ; every treaty with their wealthy neigh- bours brought in fresh stores of those foreign products, which their own country did not afford, which their own industry could not produce, and which they could SKI l I !l ■ "I l ll I u I ~ l -1 not procure in sufficient abundance, either l>\ traffic or 1>\ plunder j and it became clearly their interest to multiply the occasions of rach profitable diplomacy. Thej therefore made war arbenever tli<\ needed sup- plies; whenever cupiditj or famine goaded the nation, or ambition stimulated s ruling chief; and they made peace whenever a sufficient inducement aras tendered to tlu-ir acceptance. They do longer fought for fame or conquest, to redress irrong, or retrieve honour, and the military virtues that Bsualrj attend those irho are impelled into action by those noble impulses, entire!) forsook them; are had made them banditti; and they made war to gel money, ruin, guns, and gunpowder. The pernicious system of <_nvin\r\- the irave \ and ber dark eye flashes do more with tin- pride of consci ma beauty as the warriors of her tribe pass before her, for in their eyeeshe Is degraded, apostatised, and become almost a traitress. She has nobly sacrificed upon the altar of love, every preju- dice, ever] predilection, every tie that bound her to the friends and the protectors «>r her youth. But still she is supremely happy in the po session of that one object around whom all her affections are entwined. In the seclusion of her cottage, the cheerful perform- ance of every domestic duty, in advancing the interests of her husband by conciliating in his favour all the influence of her kindred, and the Lingering affection of her tribe, and protecting him from danger at every hazard, her days exhibit a continued scene of self-de- votion. Her dream of happiness is soon and fatally ►lved. Her lover lias accomplished his commer- cial purposes, and she is abandoned to despair, and to pace. Although the whole story of her affection iia- exhibited that loveliness of character, that purity and Qobleness of mind, which in civilised society raises a superior woman above her species, and gives her an almost unlimited influence within the sphere of her attraction — yet, she is a savage — a poor, untaught, deluded Indian — and she is abandoned by her civilised husband, with the same apathy, that a worn out domestic animal is turned loose to perish upon the common. vol. i — 8 86 SKETCHES OF THE WEST* And what becomes of this deserted woman? Think you that she has never told her sorrow, but pined away in silence, and sunk to a premature grave ; that the village maids have strewed her tomb with flowers, and that the legends of the border have added her name to the long list of the victims of blighted affec- tion? Far from it. When she loved, she had all the woman's heart ; but she is the daughter of a race with whom revenge is esteemed a virtue. She has not been reared in luxury ; she has a vigour of mind and body which enables her to survive the wreck of her hopes, and the withering of her affections. She lives a terrific monument of perverted human passion ; and she who had practised so gracefully the virtues which are proper to her sex, has learned to curse the name she had adored, to hate the whole race of her destroyer, and to behold the torture of a white man at the stake with all the demoniac malignity of an exulting fiend — while the conflagration of houses upon the frontier, and the shrieks of women and children murdered in their beds, show that she has regained her influence, and that the young warriors, who had been the unsuc- cessful suitors for her hand, have united like the admirers of Helen to avenge her honour. It is gratifying to observe in the very first opera- tions of our confederacy a spirit of moderation towards our savage neighbours. When we came to take pos- session of the national heritage for which we had fought, we found it encompassed with enemies. The southern and western tribes were generally hostile. On the borders of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina, the tomahawk was busy, and the forests of SKETCHES OF THE WEST. M Kentucky, and Tennessee, presented a vast scene of camage. Had our government been animated by the same demoniac spirit, which Beams feO have i> Other nations in their dealings with the heathen, a fair opportunity was offered at thi< period for its exercise. The pioneers were already sustaining themselves with credit on our western borders, and with a little encouragement from the government, they would bare extirpated all the tribes who opposed their progr is. Employment mighl have been given to the troops which congress found it necessary to disband ; and the veterans who had fought for independence, might have been rewarded with the lands of our enemies. But the great men who then swayed our councils, disdain- ed the paltry spirit of revenge, while they were too upright to commit an act which would have been morally wrong. They knew that the Indians had been abused and misled, by the same power which had trampled on our own rights, and had adulterated our best institutions by the admixture of foreign and pernicious principles ; and they determined to forget all the aggressions of that unhappy race, to win them to friendship by kindness, and to extend to them tu- moral and civil blessings which had been purchased by our own emancipation. The wars which succeeded that of the revolution were neither sought bv us, nor • prosecuted for one moment longer than was necessary for the defence of our frontiers. So foreign from the views of our government were all ideas of conquest, that the troops sent out under Harmar and St. Clair, were not sufficiently numerous to maintain a stand in the wilderness ; and the army of Wavne 88 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. was victorious only through the exertion of singular skill and gallantry. The most distinguished leader of the Indians, in the west, was the " Little Turtle," a man whose character won the respect and admiration of all who had the honour of his acquaintance. His military talents are sufficiently attested by the fact that the successes of the Indians in the years 1791 and 1792 are to be ascribed chiefly to him ; he was the principal leader in their battles, and the most esteemed orator in their councils. All who knew him speak in exalted terms of the sound judgment, the enlarged views, and the philosophic mind of this chief. " Like King Philip, Tecumseh, &c, he is said to have entertained, at one time, the hope of forming an extensive coalition among the Indians, with a view to retrieve the soil, of which they had been so unjustly deprived ; but meeting with difficulties which he probably saw would be invincible, he, with more foresight than either of those chiefs, soon discovered that the day for such measures had lono- since passed away, and the only advisable course which remained for his nation to adopt, would be to make peace with the invaders, and endeavour to im- prove by their superior information." (Long's 2d Expedition, vol. i. p. 86). " No wonder," said he, " that the whites drive us every year farther and farther be- fore them, from the sea to the Mississippi. They spread like oil on a blanket ; and we melt like snow before the sun. If these things do not greatly change, the red men will disappear very shortly." This chief was desirous, not only to live at peace with the Ame- ricans, but anxious that his people should become SKETCHES OF THE WEST. "9 civilised and exalted in the scale of being. His attachment to the government of the United States une very great ; and had he lived, the Indians in i h<' northwestern section of our country would proba- bly have been prevented from joining the British in the last war: and B \a OF THE WEST. 95 destroying his name and kindred, the I>riti-: secretly distributed brandy with a lavish hand : — while we invited the warrior to peace, he gave him arms and ammunition, and incited him to war and plunder: — whil- red the tribes our gospel, and our arts, and furnished them with the implement! of industry, he lavished among their tribes military ti- red coats, epaulets, and paltry trinket-, thus adminis- tering aliment to ei ge propensity and preju- dice, and neutralising the effect of every wise precept and virtuous example. Such miscreants as M*Ree and Girty. while in the daily perpetration of the n odious crimes, received from their government the honours and rewards which are only due to virtuous and patriotic services. They, and others who could be named, were as familiarly known in the western country*, and their acts were as notorious as those of Jefferson or Canning in the civilised world. In proof of this we cite the following passage from a talk delivered by President Jefferson to the Miamies. Potawatamies, Delawares, and Chippewas. " Some of you are old enough to remember, and the younger have heard from their fathers, that this country was formerly governed by the English. While they governed it, there were constant wars between the white and red people. To such a height was the hatred of both parties carried, that they thought it was no crime to kill one another in cold blood when- ever -they had an opportunity. This spirit led many of the Indians to take side agaii^t us in the war ; and at the close of it the English made pence for them- selves, and lell the Indians to get out of it as well as 96 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. they could. It was not till twelve years after that we were able, by the treaty of Greenville, to close our wars with our red neighbours. From that moment, my children, the policy of this country towards you has been entirely changed. General Washington, our first president, began a line of just and friendly conduct towards you. Mr. Adams, the second, con- tinued it ; and from the moment I came into the administration, I have looked upon you with the same good will as my own fellow citizens, have considered your interests as our interests, and peace and friend- ship as a blessing to us all. Seeing with sincere regret, that your people were wasting away, believing that this proceeded from your frequent wars, the destructive use of spirituous liquors, and the scanty supplies of food, I have inculcated peace with all your neighbours, have endeavoured to prevent the introduc- tion of spirituous liquors, and have pressed it upon you to rely for food on the culture of the earth more than on hunting. On the contrary, my children, the English persuade you to hunt. They supply you with spirituous liquors, and are now endeavouring to engage you to join them in a war against us, should a war take place. You possess reason, my children, as we do, and you will judge for yourselves which of us advise you as friends. The course they advise has worn you down to your present numbers ; but temper- ance, peace, and agriculture, will raise you up to what your forefathers were, will prepare you to possess property, to wish to live under regular laws, to join us in our government, to mix with us in society, and, SKETCHES OF THE WEST. W your Mood and our-, united, will spread Again over the great island. Contrast those sentiments, so honourable to our country and to humanity, with the following talk from the British superintendent of Indian afiairs, delivered to the Pottawafainie chiefs, ;it the river St. Josephs, of Lake Michigan, in November, 1804 : — ■• My child- ren, it is true that the Americans do not wish you to drink any spirituous, liquors, th< refbre they have told their traders that th"\ Bhould not cany any liquor into your countrj — but, my children, they have no right t<> say that one of your father's traders among von should carry no liquor anionic hi- children." " My children, your father, King George, loves his red children, and wishes his red children to be supplied wit h every thing they want ; lie is not Like the Ameri- cans, who are continually blinding your eyes, and stopping your ems with good words, that taste as sweet as sugar, and getting all your lands from you." • My children, I am told that Wells has told you, thai it was your interest to suffer no liquor to come into your country : you all know he is a bad man," &c. On another occasion he said, " My children, there is dow a powerful enemy of yours to the east, now on his feet, and looks mad at you, then fori' \<.ii must be on your guard ; keep your weapons of war in your bands, and have a look out for him." Thus while our government endeavoured to throw the jreil of oblivion over past irritations, and to esta- blish with its n-d neighbours those friendly relations by which the best interests of both parties would VOL. I. 9 98 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. have been promoted, the design was frustrated by the imprudence of a few of our citizens, and the continual intrigues of a government, which at that time arrogated to herself the title of the bulwark of religion, and claimed pre-eminence in all the arts and virtues of civilisation. The consequence was, that our frontiers continued to be desolated by petty wars of the most distressing character — wars, the miseries of which fell solely upon individuals, who were robbed, and tortured, and murdered, by those who professed to be the allies, and were in fact the dependencies, of their own government. Towards the year 1812, the Indians became more and more audacious. The approach of war between this country and Great Britain, the increased bribes and redoubled intrigues of that nation, and the prospect of gaining in her a powerful ally, gave new fuel to their hatred, and new vigour to their courage. At this period the celebrated Tecumseh appeared upon the scene. He was called the Napoleon of the west ; and so far as that title was deserved by splendid genius, unwavering courage, untiring perseverance, boldness of conception, and promptitude of action, it was fairly bestowed upon this accomplished savage. He rose from obscurity to the command of a tribe to which he was alien by birth. He was by turns the orator, the warrior, and the politician ; and in each of these capacities towered above all with whom he came in contact. As is often the case with great minds, one master passion filled his heart, prompted all his designs, and gave to his life its cha- racter. This was hatred to the whites ; and like Hannibal, he had sworn that it should be perpetual. -KETCHES OF THE WEST. 99 11 entertained the wne \;i-t project of uniting th<- scattered tribes of the west into one' great confederacy, which had been acted on by King Philip and Little Turtle. He wished to extinguish all distinctions of tribe and language, to burv all feuds, and to combim the power and the prejudices of all, in defence of the rights and possessions of the whole, as the aboriginal occupants of the country. The British officers found in him an able and apt coadjutor, and by their joint machinations the whole western frontier was thrown into commotion. It was to the followers of this chief, and in deference to his counsel, that the American prisoners taken at the river Raisin, were delivered up b\ the British commander to be slaughtered in cold blood ; and it was with Tecumseh himself, that Gene- ral Proctor made the disgraceful compact, by which it was agreed that General Harrison and all who had fought with him at Tippecanoe, should, if taken, be delivered up to the Indians to be burned. (IStAfees History of the War.) He was the terror and scourge of his foes, the uncompromising opposer of all attempts at civilising the Indians, the brave, implacable, untir- ing enemy of our people. His death dispersed the tribes who were leagued against us in the northwest, and gave a fatal blow to the hopes of the British crown in that quarter. We have noticed these events for the purpose of showing the obstacles which have embarrassed our government in all their schemes for extending the mild and moralising influence of our Christian and republican principles throughout the western forests. 100 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. With the conclusion of the war, in 1815, ended our hostilities with the Indians. The brilliant exploits of our navy, and the signal victories gained by our armies at New Orleans, at the river Thames, on the Niagara, and at Plattsburgh, convinced the British of the futility of all their hopes of conquest on this continent, and spread an universal panic among the tribes. The eyes of the latter were opened to our power, as they had been to our forbearance. They saw that they had nothing to hope from our weakness, or our fears, and much to gain from our friendship. They must now submit, or by contending single-handed against the victorious troops who had defeated their martial allies, draw down inevitable destruction upon their own heads. At this fortunate juncture our cabi- net again held out the olive branch. The enlightened Madison, ever pacific in his public character, as he was amiable and philanthropic in private life, spared no pains in healing the unhappy wounds which had been inflicted upon the mutual peace ; and his succes- sors, by pursuing the same policy, have given perma- nence to a system of amicable relations between us and our misguided neighbours. Our intercourse with the Indian tribes has now assumed a new character. Since the last war with Great Britain, no tribe has ventured upon a formal declaration of hostility. Predatoiy incursions by war parties have ceased. Robbery and murder occur as seldom upon the frontier as elsewhere. The massacre of women and children is no longer perpetrated, nor feared ; and our settlers who advance into the wilder- SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 101 DOM beyond the reach of civil protection, have aban- doned the practice of erecting stockades for their defence. In two or three instances the quiet of the frontier has been disturbed, and a momentary panic- spread throughout the settlements : but these aggres- sions have always been traced to unruly individuals, who have been surrendered for punishment, while their acts have been promptly disowned by the tribes. 9* 102 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. CHAPTER VI. Further particulars of the system of intercourse of our govern-, ment with the Indians — Michievous influence of that system. We come now to consider briefly the question, what is the precise character of our relations with the In- dians? We have to show, in support of the positions assumed in the commencement of this article, that our government, with the very best intentions towards the aborigines, has not only failed to accomplish its bene- volent purposes in regard to them, but has in fact done much positive wrong to them and to ourselves. To ascertain the exact position of the parties in respect to each other, we shall call the attention of the reader to a few of the treaties and laws which regulate the subject matter, confining ourselves chiefly to those which have been made subsequently to the events that we have narrated. Our present system of Indian re- lations, although commenced under the administration of General Washington, has been chiefly built up since the last war. The treaties have been so nume- rous, that it is impossible, on an occasion like this, to enter into their details, or to do more than to refer in a compendious manner to their leading features. We shall adopt this plan as sufficient for our purpose. The following propositions, then, will be found to con- tain the leading principles of this anomalous diplomacy, and to have obtained in our treaties with nearly all those tribes. SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 103 1. The United States have almost invariably given presents, in nosey, Minis, clothing, tanning imple- ments, and trinkets, upon the negotiation of a treaty; and in treaties for the purchase of territory, we pay an equivalent for the lands, in money or merchandise, or both, which payment is generally made in the shape of annuities, either limited or perpetual. '■2. W hen a tribe cedes the territory on which the\ reside, other territory i- specified, for their future oc- cupancy, and the United States guarantee to them the title and peaceable occupancy thereof. 3. The Indian tribes acknowledge themselves to be under the protection of our government, and of no other power what soever. 4. They engage not to make war with each other, or with any foreign nation, without the consent of the United States. 5. They agree to sell their lands only to the United States. 6. White men found hunting on the Indian lands, may be apprehended by them, and delivered up to the nearest agent of the United States. 7. White men are not to trade with the Indians, nor reside in their country, without license from our authorities. 8. An Indian who commits murder upon a white man, is to be delivered up to be tried by our laws ; stolen property is to be returned, or the tribe to be accountable for its value. 9. The United States claims the right of naviga- tion, on all navigable rivers which pass through an In- dian territory. 104 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 10. The tribes agree that they will at all times allow to traders, and other persons traveling through their country, under the authority of the United States, a free and safe passage for themselves and their property ; and that for such passage, they shall at no time, and on no account whatever be subject to any toll or exaction. 11. Should any tribe of Indians or other power, meditate a war against the United States, or threaten any hostile act, and the same shall come to the know- ledge of a tribe in amity with the United States, the latter shall give notice thereof to the nearest governor, or officer commanding the troops of the United States. 12. No tribe in amity with the United States shall supply arms or ammunition, or any warlike implement, aid, or munition, to a tribe not in amity with us. The following special articles have been assented to by particular tribes, and have been inserted in treaties with some other tribes, so as to prevail to a consider- able extent. " The United States demand an acknowledgement of the right to establish military posts, and trading houses, and to open roads within the territory guaranteed to the Creek nation in the second article, and the richt to the navigation of all its waters." — Treaty of Au- gust 9, 1814. " The Shawnee nation do acknowledge the United States to be sole and absolute sovereigns of all the ter- ritory ceded to them by a treaty of peace made be- tween them and the king of Great Britain, on the 14th January, 1786."— Treaty of 3 1st January, 1786. " It is agreed on the part of the Cherokees, that the ski m M ■ OS ill i : VJ i:st. I6fl United Btatei shall have the sols and ebeoiuM right to regulate their trade." — Treaty of id July. 1791. •• Fifty-four tmcta of one mile square each, of the land ended l>\ thi< treaty, shall !><■ hud off under the direc- tion of the President of the United States, and sold, far the purpose of raising a fund to be applied for the support of schools, f<>r the education of the Osage children."— <>/' 2d /sue, 1885. u The United Stat e to furnish at Clarke, for the nee of the Osage nations, a blacksmith, and tools to mend their arm-, and utensils of husbandry, and to hnild them a horse mill. <»r water mill : also to furnish them with ploughs, ov<-."" — Ibid. •• The United Stat.-, immediately after the ratifica- tion of this convention, shall cause to be furnished to the Iranian nation, 800 head of cattle, 300 hogs, 500 domestic fowls, three yoke of oxen, and two carts, with such implements of husbandry as the superintendent of Indian affidra may think nee. ssary ; and shall employ such persons to aid ami instruct them in agriculture, as the Piestuenl of the Tinted States may deem expe- dient ; and shall provide and support a blacksmith for them."— Treaty of M June. 1826. " Thirty-six sections of good land on Big Blue river, shall be laid out under the direction of the President of the United States, and sold, for the purpose of raising a fund to be applied under the direction of the president, to the education of the Kansas children within their nation." — Ibid. •• The Tetons, Xanetons and Tanetonies, and bands of the Henri, admit the right of the United States to regulate their trade." — Treaty of 2d June, 1835. 106 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. We now turn to the statute books, for the purpose of showing the spirit of our legislation in regard to the Indian tribes ; and in the first place the intention of those laws as expressed on the face of them is not unworthy of notice. We find throughout the whole of our acts of congress on this subject, such expres- sions as the following : — " In order to promote civilisa- tion among the friendly Indians, and to secure the con- tinuance of their friendship" &c. " For the purpose of providing against the further decline and final extinc- tion of the Indian tribes, adjoining the frontier settle- ments of the United States, and for introducing among them the habits and arts of civilisation" &c. The 3d article of an ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States, northwest of the river Ohio, runs as follows : — " Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall for ever be encouraged. The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians : their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent ; and in their pro- perty, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed unless in just and lawful wars authorised by congress ; but laws, founded injustice and humanity, shall from time to time be made for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them." We shall, when we come to enquire what have been the results of our intercourse with the Indians, and whether those results have realised the wishes of the American people, and the intentions of the govern- »m:ii ii M 01 i in: « i - i'. 107 meat, refer to the above extracts as ezpreetliig those u iahes and intentions. We will not detail at large the statutory provisions to Vfhich we intend to refer, hut will content ourselves with such a Bynopsis as will answer our purpose. Our Indian anairs an- conducted l>\ several superintendents, and a number ofagents and sub-agents, who are required to reside \\ ithin their respective agencies, and through whom the government conducts all it< negotiations with the tribes, except when special trusts are com* initted to military officers, or to commissioners ap- pointed tor the occasion. We regulate the trade with them by statute, rigoiou-ly prohibiting all ingn — into their country, 1»\ our citizens, or by foreigners, and all traffic, except by Bpeoial license from our authorities. An Indian who kills a white man, or a white man who sla^s an Indian, are alike tried by our laws, and in our courts. e\en though the offence was committed in the Indian territory. Larceny, rohhery, trespass, or other crime, committed by white men against Indians, in the country of the latter, is punish- able in our court-, and where the offender is unable to make restitution, the just value of the property taken or destroyed is paid by our government ; if a similar ression is commit! sd by an Indian against a white man, the tribe is held responsible. The president is authorised to furnish to the tribes, schoolmasters, artisans, teachers of husbandry and the mechanic arte) tools, implement-; of agriculture, domestic animals: and generally to introduce the habits and arts of social life among them. /Although we have omitted a great many provisions 108 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. similar to those which we have quoted, we believe that we have not passed over any thing which is necessary to a fair exposition of the principles of our negotiations with, and legislation over, the Indian tribes. It will be seen that we have never avowed an intention to extirpate this unhappy race, to strip them of their property, or to deprive them of, what in our declaration of independence we have emphatically termed, indefeasible rights. On the contrary, our declared purpose, repeatedly and solemnly avowed, has been to secure their friendship — to civilise them — to give them the habits and arts of social life — to elevate their character, and increase their happiness. If it be asked, to what extent these objects have been attained, the answer must be appalling to every friend of humanity. It is so seldom that the energies of a powerful government have been steadily directed to the accomplishment of a benevolent design, that we cannot, without deep regret, behold the exertion of such rare beneficence defeated of its purpose. Yet it is most certainly true, that, notwithstanding all our professions, and our great expenditure of money and labour, the Indians, so far from advancing one step in civilisation and happiness, so far from improving in their condition, or rising in the scale of moral being, are every day sinking lower in misery and barbarism. The virtues which thev cherished in their aboriginal state have been blunted by their intercourse with the whites, and they have acquired vices which were unknown to their simple progenitors. We take no account here of the Creeks, the Cherokees, and Choc taws, a portion of whom present an exception to NOTCHES OF THE WEST. 1<><* the gMal body of the Indians, and whoso case we shall refer to hereafter, as sastaining our doctrine*. We speak now of the wanderiag tribes — of tlie Indian* at large, who continue to reject the aits and habits of social life, who fear and despise the while man, and tenaciously adhere to all the ferocious customs, and [miserable axpe&ents of savage [fee. If we have failed to soften their rude nature*, to enlighten their under- standing.-, 07 to imbue their minds with anv of our principles of moral action, equafl} have we failed to secure their friendship. We have tamed them into submission by displays of our power, or bought them into Nbserrieoee with our money, but we have not -lined their love or their confidence. Nor is this all. Our system is not only inefficient, but it is positively mischievous. Its direct tendency is to retard the civilisation of the Indian. We have stripped their nations of freedom, sovereignty, and independence. We claim the right to regulate their trade, to navigate their rivers, to have ingress into their country; we forbid all intercourse with them, except by special license from our authorities ; we try them in our courts for offences committed in their country, and we do not acknowledge the existence of any tri- bunal among them, having authority to inflict a penalty on one of our citizens. They are subjected to the "^ restraints without enjoying the privileges, the protec- tion, or the moral i nflu e n ce, of our laws. Theirs is therefore a state of subjection — of mere rassalage — precisely that state which has always been found to destroy the energies, and degrade the character of a X people. vol. i — 10 110 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. But as if by a refinement of cruelty, similar to that which decks a victim in costly robes, and surrounds him with pleasing objects of sense, at the moment of execution, we leave them in the nominal possession of independence, and in the practice of all their long cherished and idolised customs, prejudices and super- stitions. They are kept separate from us, and their own national pride naturally co-operates with our injudicious policy, to keep them for ever a distinct, an alien, and a hostile people. They gain nothing by the example of our industry, the precepts of our religion, the influence of our laws, our arts, our institutions, for they see or feel nothing of the salutary operation of all these, and only know them in their terrors or their restraints. They are a subjected people, governed by laws in the making of which they have no voice, and enjoying none of the privileges of their lords para- mount. By giving them presents and annuities we support them in idleness, and cherish their wandering and unsettled habits. We bribe them into discontent, by teaching them that every public convention held for the settlement of misunderstandings, is to bring them valuable tributes ; while the same cause trains them to duplicity, and induces them to exercise all their inge- nuity in seeking out causes of offence, and in com- pounding their grievances to the best advantage. If all this is wrong in principle, it is still worse in practice. The Indian department has already become one of the most expensive branches of our govern- ment. Our foreign relations are scarcely more costly than our negotiations with the tribes. If the vast sums which are annually laid out in this manner, were n l I' KM OF TOE WEST. Ill productive of any permanent good to the Indians, no patriot or Christian would regret the expenditure. But when we see our treasure squandered with a lavish hand, not only without any good effect, but with great positive injury, to the miserable race whom we have reduced to the state of dependence upon out bounty, it is time to pause. When we examine fur- ther, ami see how large a portion of these vast sum- are intercepted before they reach the hand of the red man — DOW much is expended in sustaining military posts, paving agents, transporting merchandise, hold- ing treaties, and keeping in operation in various ways a vast, complicated, and useless machinery — when we reflect how much is unavoidably lost, and squan- dered, and misapplied, the question assumes a fearful importance. The British government, when attempting to subdue the ferocious spirit of the Scotish highlanders, and to allure them to the arts of peace, prohibited them from wearing the national dress, and from carrying arms, and used its influence to destroy the power of the chieftains, and to eradicate the use of the Gaelic lan- guage ; because all these things tended to foster the pride of descent, to cherish ancient recollections, and to keep the clans separate from the rest of the nation, and from each other. Our government has pursued a policy directly oppo- site. We are continually administering nourishment to the prejudices of the Indians, and keeping alive the distinctions that separate them from us. They are constantly reminded of their nominal independence by the embassies which are sent to them, and by the 112 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. ridiculous mock pageantry which is exhibited on such occasions ; when our commissioners, instead of exerting the moral influence of example, comply with all their customs, imitate the style of their eloquence, and even natter them for the possession of the very pro- pensities which distinguish them as savages. So far from endeavouring to abolish the distinction of dress, we furnish them annually with immense quantities of trinkets, cloths, and blankets, made expressly for their use, and differing essentially from any thing that is worn, or even sold, in our country. Wagon loads of the most childish trinkets, and the most ridiculous toys, are annually sent as presents from this great and benevolent nation, to its red allies, as assurances of the very profound respect, and tender affection, with which they are regarded by the American peo- ple. Immense sums of money are also given them in annuities — money which to the savage is totally value- less, and which is immediately transferred to the trader in exchange for whiskey, tobacco, gunpowder, looking glasses, tin bracelets, and ornaments for the nose. The idea of elevating the character of the Indian, and softening down his asperities, by pampering his indolence, and administering to his vanity, is supremely ridiculous. The march of mind will never penetrate into our forests by the beat of the drum, nor will civil- isation be transmitted in bales of scarlet cloth and glass beads. This, however, is the natural effect of treating with the Indians in their own country, and carrying our trade to their doors, where we are in some measure obliged to comply with their customs, and all our dealings with them must be carried on by -ki:t< DM Of Tin: \vi>t. 119 men who arc not amenable to our laws, nor surrounded by the salutary restraints of public sentiment. If, on the contrary, the Indian- were obliged to retort to our towns to supply their wants, and to trade with regular dealers; and if all their negotiations with our govern- ment were to be conducted within the boundaries our organised governments, they would not only be l>«tt»T treated, bat would be brought into contact with t In" most intelligent and benevolent of our citizens, and imbibe more correct notions of as and of our institutions. It' any reflecting man is asked, what it is that con- stitutes the difference between the American people, and the nations of Europe, and why we are enjoying peace and prosperity, and advancing with such rapid strides to greatness, he refers at once to the character of our government and people. The enterprise, indus- try, temperance, frugality, republican simplicity, and correct moral principles of the people, and the equality of rights secured to them in their social compact, are the elements of their respectability, security, and greatness. Do we extend these rights or teach ti virtues to the Indian? In the pageantry of the coun- cils which are held with their chiefs, do we display that simplicity which marks our intercourse with each other 1 Do we inculcate frugality by presenting them with loads of gaudy finery ? Do we teach self-depend- ence, industry, and thrift, by supplying their necessi- ties and encouraL r iiiL r their idle habits ? Do we, by any systematic exertion, present to them the example of our virtues, and oiler them inducements to cultivate peace, industry, and the art- I If it i- asked what remedy can be applied to thi^ 10* 114 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. enormous and growing evil, we reply that the enquiry is one, to our minds, of easy solution. If the Indians are our dependents, we should govern them as depend- ents ; if they are our equals, admit them to an equalitv of rights ; if they are properly subject to the operation of our laws, we should break down the barrier which separates them from us, bring them at once into the bosom of the republic, and extend to them the benefits, immunities, and privileges, which we enjoy ourselves. If it be objected that they are independent nations, and that we cannot in good faith destroy their national integrity, it will be necessary before we advance any farther in our argument, to examine whether the fact be so, that these tribes are independent. With regard to as many of the Indian nations as have by solemn treaty placed themselves under our ppotection, given us the right to regulate their trade, navigate their rivers, and punish their people in our courts, and agreed to admit no white man of any nation into their country without our license, there seems to be but little doubt. Sovereign nations they are not, for they have parted with all the highest attributes of sove- reignty. If we refer to our own legislation, it will be seen that this is not confined to those tribes which have by treaty submitted themselves to our jurisdic- tion. The general phrases " Indian" and " Indian territory" extend the operation of those laws, to all the country lying west of our settlements, and to all the tribes and individuals, within that region. With what propriety can we now pause to enquire into our right of sovereignty over those tribes, when we have already exercised that sovereignty, to the full extent that our own safety or interest required ? If to pro- -Kin ii ■ of Tii ■ wp.st. 115 i, .t or aggrandise oaraelTea we have assumed juris- diction, without u qualm of conscience, shall we become squca mish, when called upon to exercise the Baaae power for the advantage of the Indian? The question is not now to be decided whether we shall extinguish the independence of the Indians, because that point has Long since been settled, and we haw by purchase <>r by conquest, acquired full sovereignty. Panning over the treaties to which we have r efer re d , and which speak for themselves, it may be necessary t<> prove those assertions of power made by us in various ways. To avoid repetition we shall pass over tin- statutes above referred to, and to which the intelligent reader can recur, and shall proceed to notice some other assumptions of sovereignty on our part. In the year 1783 Virginia ceded to the United ►States all right, title, and claim, as well of soil, as jurisdiction, to that region which was afterwards called the Northwestern Territory, the whole of which was owned and occupied by the Indians, except a few spots inhabited by the French. The condition of this cession, was that the territory so ceded should " be laid out and formed into states," " and that the states so formed shall be distinct republican states, and admitted members of the Federal Union, &c." To this treaty the Indian tribes were not parties, and of course seem not to have been recognised as having any political or civil rights. Virginia by ceding, and the United States by accepting, both " soil and jurisdic- tion," and both parties by providing for the erection of republican states in this country, deny all right of sovereignty in the aborigines as effectually as if they had done so by express words. 116 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. Afterwards, and before any of this country was purchased from the Indians, an ordinance was passed for its government ; and although it is provided in this act that the Indians shall be protected in their " pro- perty, rights, and liberty," this provision is not broader than that made in favour of the French inhabitants in the deed of cession, and it only extends to the people of that territory the same " indefeasible" rights which appertain to every citizen of the United States. The terms used apply to the Indians in their individual, not in their national capacity, and the very passing of such a law is an assumption of sovereignty, which excludes the idea of any power existing in the Indians to protect their own rights, property, and liberty. Mr. Jefferson, in a letter addressed to the governor of Indiana, dated February 27, 1803, uses the follow- ing language :-" The Cahokias being extinct, we are entitled to their country by our paramount sovereignty. The Peorias, we understand, have all been driven from ^ their country, and we might claim it in the same way." Without multiplying authorities on the subject, we have quoted enough to show, that we claim over their country a " paramount sovereignty," and have extend- ed over them the coercive and the protective power of our laws. In the language of Judge Marshall, we hold them under " pupilage." We are pursuing the policy of an unwise parent, who supports his son in idleness, and does not subject him to discipline — who supplies his wants, pampers his extravagance, and rears him in vicious indolence, without teaching him the art of gaining his own livelihood, or the moral principles necessary to regulate his conduct. -Kin 11 E9 OF THE V- I 11" (H liPTER \ II. Political rights of the Indian tri!>< Their political condition — Our duty toward-* then — Suggestions in reference to their civilisation. The country beyond the Mississippi is of vatt importance to the American people. It forms at aveaanJ the western boundary of our population; and i- inhabited by hordes of savages, who, from having been OUT equals, our allies, our enemies, the scourge and terror of our borders, are sinking fast into a state Of illlbei lie deprmleiie\ . \\ liiell must Soon render them the marc objects of our compassion* Already their rights have be c ome so questionable, as to divide the SfMDJaas of our beat and wisest men. Not that an\ are so hold as to deny they have ant/ rights. Par be it from us, at least, to hint that such a thought is seriously entertained. Their claims upon us are high and sacred : but unfortunate!) lor them, and us, the) are undefined, and almost imdafinabte. How shafl we rtain the political rights of those, who have ne\ei apknowledged any international law — whose station n not fixed bj the code of empire) — who have no place in the family of nations I How estimate the civil con- dition of those whose government is, if we mar so express it. a Byatematic anarchy, in which no maxim, either of religion, morality, or law, is admitted to he 118 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. fundamental, no right is sacred from the hand of vio- lence, no personal protection ensured, but to strength and valour? What are the obligations of religion, justice, or benevolence, towards those who acknow- ledge neither the one nor the other, in the sense that we understand these terms ? How shall we deal with a people, between whom and ourselves, there is no community of language, thought, or custom — no reci- procity of obligations — no common standard, by which to estimate our relative interests, claims, and duties ? These are questions of such difficult solution, that per- haps they will at last be decided, not by reason, but by power — as the gordian knot was severed by the sword of the conqueror. We apprehend, however, that the agitation of some of these points would be rather curious than useful. It can be of little benefit to the Indian, at this day, to enquire what have been the rights that he has forfeited by his own misconduct, lost by misconception, or sur- rendered to the hand of violence. We cannot now place him in the condition in which our ancestors found him, but must deal with him according to the circumstances by which he is surrounded. And the question now is, what, in the present condition of the Indian, is our duty to him, and to ourselves. In the first place, we cannot believe that the mere fact, that a wandering horde of savages are in the habit of traversing a particular tract of the country in pursuit of game, gives to them the ownership and jurisdiction of the soil, as sovereign nations. In order to sustain such a claim, it should be shown that they have, at least, definite boundaries, permanent institu- uuncHse or thi wist< 119 lions, and the power to protect themsi Ives, and enforce their laws. These are some of the attributes of nations. To make a tuition, there must be a xorcrn- meni — a In. ml of union by which the individual cha- racter shall, tor civil and social purposes, he merged in that of the body politic J nnd there must be a power somewhere, to make and to enforce laws. Other nations must be satisfied that there is a permanent authority which has the right to represent, and the power t<» hind, such a community, by treaty. They must he satisfied, that then- is a legal, or a moral power, sufficiently strong to enforce the obligations of justice, and that then- is some judicial mode of investi- gating facts, determining questions of right, and settling principles. In short, there must be some settled prin- ciples, of political and moral action, observed alike by the people and their rulers, which shall govern their intercourse with foreigners, and render it safe and certain. A body of men, merely associated together, for present security and convenience, is by no means a nation. Between such a body, and a great empire in the full exercise of all the attributes of sovereign power, there may be several grades of the social compact. States may be dependent or independent; the people may govern themselves, or they mav acknowledge a master. But between a government and no government there is but one line ; there is a clear distinction between a state, and a mere collec- tion of individuals; the latter, whatever may be their separate personal rights, cannot have collectively any political existence, and any nation in whose limits, or upon whose borders, they may happen to be, has a 120 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. clear right to extend its authority over them, having regard always to the rights of other nations. It is very clear, that the North American Indians have at this time no regularly organised governments. They have no foreign intercourse, no trade, no revenue, nor any laws for the protection of life, liberty, or property. Even the subdivision of tribes is doubtful and fluctuating. They are separated into smaller, or united into larger bodies, as their own convenience, or the caprice of a chief may dictate. An intelligent and warlike chief may amalgamate many of these clans together, or a war may force them to unite ; but when the cause which binds them together ceases, or when rival warriors contend for the ascendancy, they separate, or form other combinations. In the narra- tion of Long's second expedition, we find that the Dacotas are divided into fifteen tribes, and the writer observes, " almost every traveller, who has visited the Dacotas, has given a different enumeration of their divisions ; some reckoning but seven, while others admit as many as twenty-one tribes." Again, " These form two great divisions, which have been distinguished by traders into the names, Gens du Lac, and Gens du Large" — those who live by the lake, and those who roam the prairies. In this instance, it would be diffi- cult to ascertain what individuals or tribes could be classed together as a nation, and the claim of any por- tion, to be ranked as a body politic, would, in legal phrase, be bad, for uncertainty. But again, there is a general movement throughout the civilised world in favour of liberal thought, free principles, and the dissemination of knowledge. Every -K I r< BH OF in I U i 121 ■ rnmenl in Europe is now trembling and man} of them convulsed with actual revolution, in consequence of the universal spread of intelligence among the people. The contest between ignorance and light; and between despotism and liberty, is L r «»ing forward throughout Christendom. Everj where the spirit of improyemeni is abroad; and the torn spirit pervades all ranks, and even department of human thought and industry. In religion, politics, literature, and the mechanic arts, men have resolved to think for them- selves. Thej will neither be machines to do the work that steam-engines can do for them; nor will they be the slaves of idle, nor the instruments of artful rulers, in church or state. Ours is moreover an eco- nomical age. when Dotbing is valued that is not useful and practical, and when no value is placed upon mere names. Under these circumstances, we cannot believe that a people, such as we are, can deliberately propose to consign a vast region to eternal sterility, and to support a multitude of human beings in idleness, igno- rant*?, intemperance and bloodshed. We are not so wedded to names as to believe that we are obliged to keep up a state of things which we know to be wrong and impolitic, merely because it exists, and has existed ; nor can we adopt the maxims of legitimacy so far as to feel ourselves bound to respect that which has nothing to recommend it hut its long continuance, and nothing to support it hut the prejudices of ignorant, and the selfishness of interested, individuals. To come at once to the point, we believe that it is the duty of our government, to take the Indians directly under its own control as subjects. Divided as they vol. i — 11 122 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. are into hostile tribes, torn by dissentions and feuds, hunted down by each other, and pillaged by unprinci- pled traders ; too ignorant to form, and too weak to support local governments ; without commerce, agri- culture, arts, education, or any of the means of social comfort, or intellectual improvement, it is mere folly to consider them as separate independent governments. With far more reason might Algiers have been re- garded as a sovereign state ; for it had a government, a capital, a commerce, a marine, and a definite terri- tory. Yet no one has contended that it was unjust or cruel in the French, to blot out a despotism, that was an abomination in the eyes of civilised men, and to establish forcibly a regular government in the room of barbarism. We have less to do, because the Indians are already under our care, have acknowledged our authority, and are dependent on us for protection ; and their proximity to our borders obliges us, in self- defence, to govern them. The highest judicial tribunal of our country has decided that they are under our " pupilage," the executive, and legislative powers of our government have long ago made the same deci- sion, by the exertion of authority over them, and public sentiment in sanctioning these acts, has ratified the general proposition, that they are not independent nations. If, then, they are in fact, not independent, why persevere in the mockery of calling them so ? Would there be any immorality in abolishing a mere fiction, and doing openly, that which we have been practising all along, covertly 1 If we do in fact govern the Indians, why not lay bare the arm of justice, assert our authority, exert it to its full, legitimate extent, and -KETCHES OF THE WT- I . 123 force them to acknowledge and obey it 1 If it is for the good of the Indian that all this should be done, we apprehend that there is no maxim of justice or mo- rality, which would forbid it. There is no question, that any other government than ours, similarly situated, would long since have openly taken the Indian tribes under it.s authority. An amiable, an honourable, a magnanimous sentiment of forbearance, an unwillingness to do that which might bear the slightest semblance of injustice, has dictated the course that we have pursued. It is now ascertained to have been a mistaken policy, but we are far from branding it with the name of weakness. The experiment was worth trying. The sacred relation in which we stood in regard to the rest of the world, and the principles which we had assumed as the basis of our government, made it proper for us to act with great caution on a question supposed to involve the right of self-government in another people. But the time for that delicacy has passed away. As regards the Indians we have crossed the Rubicon ; and to the world, we have given such an exposition of our principles, that our conduct in this matter will not now be misunderstood. The acts and the professions of our government have shown throughout, that our intentions towards the Indians were humane and just, and if the system under which that benevolence has been dispensed, has proved to be not only inefficient, but absolutely pernicious to us and to them, it is our privilege, and our duty to change it. At present they have no government, and whether they ever had any is doubtful. John Tanner, who 124 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. resided among the Ojibeway Indians for thirty years, and who hunted and traveled extensively among the tribes who inhabit the shores of the upper lakes, does not, in his whole narrative, refer to any thing like a government. He does not mention the name of a ruling chief, nor does he detail a single instance of the exertion of sovereign authority. It is very clear that there is no government, among all those tribes. There are divisions into tribes it is true, but these are large families, rather than nations, for the distinctions are those of blood, not of country or government. Tanner himself never acknowledged any superior, nor considered himself as belonging to any particular body, though he called himself an Ojibeway. Among his tribe were many leaders. A man who became distinguished as a warrior, or hunter, was resorted to by others, who became his followers, remained with him as long as he was successful, and dispersed when- ever he experienced a reverse, or whenever game grew scarce. These combinations seldom last more than one season ; and the same chief who now com- mands a hundred warriors, will perhaps spend his next year in hunting at some solitary spot by himself, or be wandering about at the head of a little band composed of his own relatives. In the next great war, or hunting party, he may be first, second, or third, in rank, or have no rank, just as it happens. Speaking of one of their large war parties, Mr. Tanner says, " on this occasion, men were assembled from a vast extent of country, of dissimilar feelings and dia- lects, and of the whole fourteen hundred, not one who would acknowledge any authority superior to his own SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 125 will. It is true that ordinarily they yield a certain deference, and a degree of obedience to the chief each may have undertaken to follow; hut this obedience, in most instances, continues do Longer than the will of the chief corresponds entirely with the inclination- of those be beads." This is their situation at this time, and Governor Cass has recorded his opinion, "that in all the essential features of character and condi- tion, this branch of the human family has been as stationary as any whose records are known to u-\" We do not deny that in some of the more southern tribes, the power of the chief La more permanent, and the existence of the tribe more definite, than among the borderers of the North Western lakes; but their notions of government, of personal rights, and of the social relation are similar, though not identical ; and our argument is as applicable to them as to others. The plan that we would propose, would be to divide the whole Indian territory, into as many districts as could be conveniently arranged, so that each might be brought under the subjection of a governor. Go- vernors should be placed over them, with ample powers, and with a sufficient military force, to make themselves obeyed. The Indians should be told, at once, that they are not independent, and that we intend to protect and rule them ; that they must cease entirely from war., and from wandering at all, into the territories of their neighbours. A council to be selected by them, composed of a few of their chief men, should assist the governor in making laws. which should be few, brief, and simple. The Indian agents, the annuities, the presents, and the trader-. 11* 126 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. should all be withdrawn. No white man should reside, or remain in the Indian country, but the governor and his subordinates. No Indian should be permitted to trade with a white man, within the Indian country. Instead of preventing the Indians from coming into our country to trade, they should be encouraged to do so, as this would be one of the most effectual means of enabling them to learn our language, and adopt our customs. They should be encouraged to build houses, and to own cattle, hogs, and poultry. It should be distinctly understood that the government would not supply them with food or clothing. The annuities which we are bound by treaty to pay, would have to be paid : but all other gratuities should be withheld. The consequences would be, that the Indians would soon become an indolent pastoral people. They would not at first become an industrious, agricultural people : that change would be too violent. They would first grow lazy and harmless. Prevented from going to war, they would lose their warlike habits. Their cattle would soon increase to large herds, and abundance of food would lessen the necessity of their hunting. Their almost frantic passion for ardent spirits would be decreased by the same means, for we have no doubt, that one of the causes of their attachment to it is, that it deadens the painful sense of hunger which among them is constitutional. An Indian, like a wolf, is always hungry, and of course is always ferocious. In order to tame him, the sense of hunger must be re- moved ; it is useless to attempt to operate on the mind, while the body is in a state of suffering. It is well ascertained that the Indian, is, for about half his BKJ i • ii I - "i i in: \\ BST. 1'JT lime, destitute of food, and obliged eitbei to endure the pangs of hunger, <>r to use the meet arduous i bona to procure provisions. The attempt to civili human being thus circumstanced is preposterous. To be satisfied of this, it is only aeeesBarj to read u Tan« Bar's Narrative," whkh was carefully prepared by one who was capable of understanding the exact meaning of the relator, and stating ii with clearness. His wh<»lo thirty years among the Indians, were Bpenl in active exertions to get something to eat. Few solemnities, and fewer amusements, arc Bpoken <»f throughout the volume : whenever a number of Indians collected together, they were presently dispersed by hunger. To live three, tour, or five days, without eating was not uncommon. Sometimes they subsisted for weeks, upon a little bear's grease, sometimes they chewed their oaocaainsj and peltries. Often thai were reduced to eat their dogs, or to subsist tor whole days upon the inner hark of trees. Stealing, biding food from each other, and every species of rapacity and meanness, became the consequence : and this La not the tale of one day, or one year, or a single trine, but the disgusting burthen of a story which compre- hends a series of years, and describes the people of a whole region. As the procuring of food is the great object of their lives, the moment that object is remov- ed, the mind, relieved of its burthen, will either turn nergies in some other direction, or sink to repose. The latter is the most probable consequence. At present the Indians are prevented from keeping live stock, or making any permanent provision for the future, by the insecurity of the lives they lead. A 128 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. friend of ours, who asked a Saukie, " why do you not build houses to put your corn in, as we do, instead of burying it in the ground, and getting so much of it wasted ?" was answered, " if we put our corn in houses, the Winnebagoes would come in the winter, and kill us to get it." If they were asked why they keep no domestic animals about them, except dogs and horses, the reply would be similar. They build no houses, make no fields, nor any provision for a per- manent residence, and all for the same reason — pro- perty of any description, would tempt the rapacity of their enemies. Security is only found in poverty, and swiftness of foot, and in their happiest state, they are always prepared for instant flight. We repeat, that the attempt to civilise such a people is absurd. We have begun at the wrong end. Their habits must be first changed, and their physical wants supplied, before any effect can be produced on their minds and hearts. The proposition is well understood, as applied to our- selves, that security of person and property, is the basis of all our rights, and is the chief cause of all our civilisation. Why should not the converse of that proposition be true of the Indians : that the insecurity of property, or rather the entire absence of all ideas of property, is the chief cause of their barbarism. We apprehend then, that the chain of causes by which the condition of this unhappy race must, if at all, be ameliorated, will be interwoven in something like the following order ; first, personal security, by the entire abolition of war, among them; secondly, permanent habi- tations, and thirdly, notions of property. Let these three things be accomplished, and the work is done. BEMTi hes OF Tin: w i>r. 1 20 Let the Indiana l>e settled in fixed residences, be secure, and begin to own property, and the rest will succeed as certainly as cause and effect. Ideas of comfort and order will Bpring up <»f themselves. There are several reasons, why the Indians ought to trade with us only in our country. They would learn our language, see our customs, imbibe our opinions, and especially would get definite ideas of the value of different articles of propert\. They would be induced to purchase articles of dress and ornament, such as are worn by us, until by degrees their appearance would be assimilated to ours. Imper- ceptibly they would fall into the use of many articles, of which they are now ignorant ; such as mechanical tools, culinary utensils, and farming implements. Every such article, thus adopted, would be a messen- ger of civilisation. But the most important end to be gained, would be the protection of the savage from imposition. Humanity shudders at the recital of the nefarious acts practised by the white traders upon the Indians. Yet not the half of them are known or dreamt of by the American people. We refer again to Mr. Tanner's narrative, which every man who has a vote on this subject ought to read. Here we find the traders sometimes taking by force, from an Indian, the produce of a whole year's hunt, without making him any return, sometimes pilfering 1 a portion while buying the remainder, and still oitener wresting from the poor wretches, while in a state of intoxica- tion, a valuable property, for an inadequate remunera- tion. In one place our author tells of an Indian woman, his adopted mother, who, " in the course of a 130 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. single day, sold one hundred and twenty beaver skins, with a large quantity of buffalo robes, dressed and smoked skins, and other articles /or rum." He pathe- tically adds, " of all our large load of peltries, the pro- duce of so many days of toil, of so many long and diffi- cult journeys, one blanket, and three kegs of rum only remained, besides the poor and almost worn out clothing on our bodies." The sending of missionaries, to labour by the side of the miscreants who thus swindle, and debauch the ignorant savage, is a mockery of the office, and a waste of the time, of those valuable men. If the Indians traded within our states, with our regular traders, the same laws, and the same public sentiment which protects us, would protect them. The missionary operations, among the roving tribes have heretofore proved entirely nugatory. When we are told of what has been done among the Cherokees, the Choctaws, and other southern Indians, the view that is given of the case is partially deceptive — not intentionally untrue, but delusive, to some degree in point of fact, and entirely as regards the causes, to which the degree of civilisation which exists, is attri- buted. In the first place, it should be understood that the civilisation which exists, is most perceptible among the half-breeds, and has affected the full-blooded Indians, in a very slight degree. Again, so far as their habits have been changed, the effect has been produced by the very causes which we have ventured to suggest as essential. They have been separated from other tribes, surrounded by the whites, restrained from war, and confined to their own hunting grounds. They were perfectly secure, as far as their persons -ki:n in.- 09 mi: w i> i . 181 were concerned: and the whites who Bettled among them, and married squaws, introduced notions of pro- perty, and became themselves wealthy. Their pre- judices and peculiarities being thus blunted, and their habits in Borne degree softened, the way was open to the missionary, who must always ./b&wr, and not pre- the march of civilisation. But the attempt to civilise the roving hands, by iu by the mere fovce of truth, by any effect on the mind, has always exclusively been, and will con- tinue to be, abortive. The physical impediments must first be removed. Among white men, has Chris- tianity, literature, or the arts, ever flourished, during a period of civil war, or anarchy 7 In a period of military misrule, when martial virtues were alone smed, have the arts of peace ever flourished? In those countries where the peasantry are oppressed, and have no rights, property, or education, are they not degraded and ferocious? If we trace the savage hands of Europe, from their former state of barbarism, to their present moral elevation, we shall find the same causes always to have operated. The first step has alwa\ s been the acquisition of permanent habita- tions, and the consequent love of country and of home. The poea ssion of property, and civil rights next fol- lowed. Then emancipation from their chiefs, and political rights began to be demanded. The state of war became inconvenient. Commerce between nations softened prejudice-, produced the interchange of com- modities, encouraged the arts, and enlarged the stock of knowledge. The minister of the gospel, and school teacher, have 132 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. been powerful agents in all these changes ; but they have never marched in the van. They form powerful corps in the main body, but their business is to secure and improve the acquisitions, which bone and muscle, and courage and skill, have obtained. As the rifle and the axe must subdue the forest, before the hus- .bandman can cultivate the soil, so must the strong arm of the nation, produce peace, enforce obedience, and organise a system of civil rights and restraints, before the mild precepts of the gospel, and the fructi- fying streams of knowledge, can be made to pervade the wilderness, and to teach the desert to blossom as the rose. This subject might be illustrated by many examples from history, by a variety of facts now in existence, and a long train of argument. But we are admonish- ed that it has already occupied as much space as it is proper to devote to one topic, in such a work as ours. We are satisfied with having thrown out a few of the prominent points of our view of the case. Others, who feel interested, can pursue the investigation at their leisure. It must soon occupy the serious atten- tion of the government, and the people ; and when all the facts shall be presented, in a connected view, it will be seen that the present system of Indian rela- tions, must be radically changed, or wholly abandoned; and the question to be decided will be, whether the savage tribes shall be driven beyond our frontiers, and left to their fate, or be subjected to the wholesome constraint of our laws. The indolent and the timid may shrink from the latter alternative, because it is novel, and bears the semblance of violene, but humanity -KETCHES OF THE WEST. 139 shudders at the former. The statements of the inte- rested] or the apprehensions of honest prejudice, may embarrass the decision; but a magnanimous people will hear the evidence on both sides, and we have no fears as to the wisdom or the integrity of the nation, in any case, where its verdict shall be deliberately made up, and solemnly recorded. VOL. I 12 PART II. HISTORY OF THE FRENCH SETTLEMENT? CHAPTER I. First explorers — Discovery of the Mississippi — French missiona- ries — La Salle's voyages — Settlements on the Mississippi — Manners of the French colonists — Kaskaskia — Fort Chartres. The French, who first explored the beautiful shores of the Mississippi, and its tributary streams, believed they had found a terrestrial paradise. Delighted with this extensive and fertile region, they roamed far and wide over its boundless prairies, and pushed their little barks into every navigable stream. Their in- offensive manners procured them every where a fa- vourable reception ; their cheerfulness and suavity conciliated even the savage warrior, whose suspicious nature discovered no cause of alarm in the visits of these gay strangers. Divided into small parties, having each a separate object, they pursued their several designs without concert, and with little colli- sion. One sought wealth, and another fame ; one came to discover a country, another to collect rare -ki r« u\ - or the « m 185 and nondescript spei [mens of natural curiosities; one traveled to Bee man in a state of nature, another brought the i^xpel to the heathen: while the greater Dumber roved carelessly among those interesting scenes indulging their curiosity and their love of ad- 'DO venture and seeking n<» higher gratification than that which the novelty and excitement of the pre* moment afforded* The adventurers of no other nation have ever pene- 1 so far, oi ■ into the interior of a newly discovered country. The father- of New England were circumscribed to narrow boundaries, on the sterile shores of the Atlantic : the first settlers of Virginia were equally unfortunate. The gallant Raleigh barely effected a landing for his colony, on the shores of North Carolina; even the indefatigable William Peon, several years after the settlement of Pennsylvania, speaks of the Delaware as a " glorious river:" but is wholly unacquainted with its extent and character. The unsuccessful attempts of British travellers, stimulated by the highest rewards of ambi- tion and avarice, to penetrate the continent of Africa, are well known. The Spaniards traversed the plains of South America, only by force of arms* We read, therefore, with a surprise bordering on incredulity, of the adventurous voyages of the French. Small parties, and even single individuals, explored the shores of the St. Lawrence, and its mighty chain of tributary lakes, inhabited by the most _<■ of the Indian tribes* While the whole American con- tinent waa yei a wilderness, and it was an unsettled point among Christian nations, to whom the honour of 136 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. its conquest should belong ; the French priests ascend- ed the Mississippi, from its mouth to the Falls of St. Anthony, a distance of three thousand miles, and explored the Arkansas, the Ohio, the Wabash, the Illinois, the Wisconsin, and other large tributa- ries. Not only did they pass with impunity, but were received with hospitality, and entertained with marks of distinguished respect ; the fat hump of the buffalo was dressed for them ; and troops of beautiful Indian girls stood around them, waving the golden plumes of the paroquet over their heads, to keep the uncivilised musquitoes from biting them as they slept. It is difficult, at this day, to determine to whom should be awarded the honour of having discovered this beautiful section of our country. That the mate- rials for an accurate history of its first exploration and settlement, are in existence, we are well aware ; and there is reason to believe, that, in addition to what is already known, there is a vast deal of docu- mentary evidence remaining unpublished, or inaccessi- ble to the English reader. The missionaries, who were always men of some literary acquirement, and often possessed considerable learning, accompanied the first French explorers. So far as their characters can now be ascertained, they seem to have been amiable and zealous men, earnestly bent on spreading the doctrines of the cross. Unlike the Spanish priests, who were avaricious, blood-thirsty, and always fore- most in subjugating or destroying. the Indians, we find them invariably conciliating the natives, and endea- voring to allure them to the arts of peace. The only -KETCHES OF THE WEST. 1 37 departure from this policy, on their pan. Lb found in the practice, which they doubtless sanctioned, and which was pursued by both French and English, of arming the savages in the colonial wars. The French missionaries, therefore, wrote with less prejudice than most of the early adventurers to Ainerica; and t li«ir accounts of the country are the result of accurate personal observation. They had fewer insults to resent than others; and their state- ments are more candid, because, in general, they were intended only for the perusal of their superiors. True, their writings are imbued with exaggerations. Ardent in their temperament, and deeply tinctured with the superstitions which at that time pervaded Christendom, they hastily adopted the marvelous tales of the natives, and have transmitted some curious fictions to posterity. But all history is liable to the same objection ; and the writings of the persons to whom we allude, being now the only records of the early settlement of our country, are as valuable as they are interesting. Some of them have been pub- lished, but, doubtless, there yet remain in the public depositories of France, and in the monastic institu- tions of that country, a mass of reports and letters, in manuscript, which might shed additional light on this portion of our national history. For the present, we must content ourselves with the few but precious morsels of this ancient lore, which have been rescued from oblivion. But we hope that the day is not far distant, when those who rule our nation, instead of spending month after month, and million after million, in the discussion of worse than useless questions, i2« 138 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. tending only to the gratification of personal ambition, will consult the true honour of the country, by ex- pending a portion of its treasure in the developement of its history and moral resources. Whenever that time shall arrive, we hope to see an effort made for the recovery of these invaluable memorials of a past age. There is one distinguished individual in the national cabinet, whose pen has been successfully employed on these subjects, to whose researches into Indian and French colonial history, the national lite- rature is largely indebted, and from whose influence, should it be equal to his zeal and merits, we may expect much. We shall not trace the adventurous footsteps of Jacques Cartier, the first European explorer of Lower Canada, who ascended the St. Lawrence to the island of Montreal, in the year 1535, nearly three centuries ago. Nor shall we attempt to follow the heroic Champlain, who planted and sustained, on the shores of the St. Lawrence, the infant colony which was destined to people that extensive region. But a few years elapsed, after the French had gained a foothold upon the continent, before we find them pushing their discoveries towards the most remote tributaries of the St. Lawrence. The Indian birch canoe, which they adopted, and in the management of which they soon acquired unrivaled skill, afforded remarkable facilities for these long and painful journeys ; for these little vessels combine so remarkably the properties of strength and lightness, that while they are capable of transporting heavy burthens, and of making long and dangerous voyages, they can, when unladen, be car- skim EOS "•' Tin: wi>r. 139 ried with ease upon the shoulders of men. They are propeled by oars, through the water, with astonishing swiftness, and when the stream is impeded by any impassable obstacle, the) are unloaded, carried over land to the nearest navigable point, and again launch- ed in their elem The principal trade of Canada was carried on in these frail boats for two centuries j and it i- interesting to observe, in an invention so simple, and so apparently msignincant, an illustration of the important aid which may be afforded by the mechanical arts, to political and moral power. The birch canoe was to the French, not only what the steamboat is to us, enabling them to navigate the lakes and rivers of Canada. to ascend the Mississippi, and all its tributaries, but it also afforded the means of surmounting the most dan- gerous rapids ; of passing from river to river ; of pene- trating into the bosom of trackless forests, and of striking into the recesses of inhospitable mountains. It was this simple boat which afforded to the French the means of traversing this vast region, securing its trade, cultivating the friendship of its inhabitants, and gaining a power, which, if ably wielded, must have permanently subjected the whole of this country t<> their language, their customs, their religion, and, per- haps, to their dominion. In the year 1632, sv\cn years only after Quebec was founded, the missionaries had penetrated as far Lake Huron. The Wyandots and Iroquois at thai time engaged in an exterminating war, and the priests, following their converts through good and evil fortune, and tenaciously adhering to the altars 140 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. which they had reared by perilous exertion in the wilderness, shared all the privations and dangers which usually attend these border feuds. In their intercourse with the Indians on the shores of the northern lakes, the French became informed of the existence of a river flowing to the south, and desired to ascertain its character. Father Marquette, a priest, and Joliet, an inhabitant of Quebec, were employed to prosecute this discovery ; and having ascended Fox river, crossed the portage, and descend- ed the Ouisconsin, entered the Mississippi on the 17th June, 1673. They pursued the meanders of the river to its confluence with the Arkansas, and on their return, ascended the Illinois, and re-entered Lake Michigan at Chicago. La Salle, a man of talents, courage, and experience, determined to complete, if possible, a discovery so important to the interests of the French government, and embarked in the prosecution of this undertaking in 1679. He built the first vessel, larger than a canoe, that ever navigated these lakes. It was launched at Erie, and called the Griffin. " He reached Michilimackinac, where he left his vessel, and coasted Lake Michigan in canoes, to the mouth of the St. Joseph. The Griffin was despatched to Green Bay, for a cargo of furs, but she was never more heard of, after leaving that place. Whether she was wrecked, or captured and destroyed by the Indians, no one knew at that day, and none can now tell. La Salle prosecuted his design with great vigour, amid the most dicouraging circumstances. By the abilities he displayed ; by the successful result of his -ki:ti ess oi rn w i - 1 . 141 undertaking ; and by the melancholy catastrophe which terminated his own career, be ifl well worthy a place among that band of intrepid adventun who, commencing with Columbus, and terminating with Parry and Franklin, have devoted themselves with noble ardour, to the extension of geographical knowledge, and have laid open the recesses of this continent." — Cass's Address. \\\ have mel with an old volume, containing an account of La Salle's second voyage into North America, in 1683, written in French, "by Monsieur Jontel, a commander in that expedition." They land- ed at the mouth of the Mississippi, and ascended that river. Of the Wabash, he says, " We came to the mouth of a river called the Houabache. said to come from the country of the Iroquois, towards New Eng- land. " ' " A tine river: its water remarkably clear, and current gentle." The expression, k * towards New England," shows how inadequate an idea they had of the extent of our country. On reaching the Illinois, he remarks, " We found a great alteration in that river, as well with respect to its current, which is very gentle, as to the country about it, which is more agreeable and beautiful than that about the great river, by reason of the many fine woods, and variety of fruits, its banks are adorned with. It was a very great relief to us, to find so much ease in going up that river, bv reason of its gentle stream, so that wo all stayed in the canoe, and made much more waj ." M with some of the natives, he remarks, "We asked them what nation they were of; the] 142 SKETCHES OF THE WE?T. answered, they were Islinois, of a canton called Cas- casquia." This account settles the question some- times propounded, as to the origin of the name of this country, which some have suppposed to be of French origin, and to be derived from the words Isle aux noix, but which is undoubtedly aboriginal, although the orthography may be Gallic. The tribe alluded to were called the Ulini. Another passage shows, that the Indians of th days were very similar to their descendants : and, that, however the savage character may have become deteriorated in some respects, by intercourse with the whites, it is essentially the same under all circum- stances. u They are subject," says our author, M to the creneral vice of all other Indians, which is, to boast very much of their warlike exploits, and that is the main subject of their discourse, and they are very great liars" The map attached to this book, is quite a curiosity — it is so crude, and so admirable a specimen of the rude state of the arts at the time when it was made. It is such as an indian would trace in the sand with his linger, or the biggest boy in a shool would draw on the black-board. Shortly after the -country had been thu3 explored, it was settled by colonies from Lower Canada, who founded the villages of Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Peoria. The exact date of this emigration is not known, but it was probably between the years 1680 and 1690. In IT 12, Louis XIV., by letters patent, granted to Anthony Crozat, counsellor of state, \ all the inhabitants; and the lot thus red. became private property, and might be added, if conveniently situated, to the common field. The latter \;;i< owned in parcels by individuals, who held a largei or smaller number of acres, in separate lots, each tilling his own land, although the whole was surrounded by B single fence, and the several parts not divided by enclosures. VOL. I 18 146 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. Previous to the year 1748, Spain, France, and England, claimed the greater part of North America, by right of conquest, or of discoveries made under their patronage, respectively. The treaty of Aix la Chapelle, made in that year, contained a provision for the restitution of the territories which each had wrested from the other, but was wholly silent as to boundaries. France, however, owned Canada on the north, and Lower Louisiana on the south, besides claiming the intermediate discoveries of La Salle and others, on the upper lakes, the Mississippi, and the Illinois. The French government, at a very early period, adopted the policy of uniting their possessions in Canada with those in Louisiana, by a chain of posts, which, extending along the whole course of the north- ern lakes, and the Mississippi, should open a line of interior communication from Quebec to New Orleans, and which would secure to them the expansive terri- tory of the west, by confining their English neighbours to the country east of the Alleghany ridge. It happen- ed, however, with the French, as with the English, that all their calculations in reference to their Ameri- can colonies, were formed upon a scale too small, as well in regard to the objects to be secured, as in rela- tion to the extent of the means to be employed. The minds of their statesmen seem to have never em- braced the whole vast field upon which their policy was to operate. They appear to have had but feeble conceptions of the great extent of the country, and to have been entirely ignorant of the amount and cha- racter of the means necessary for its subjection. SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 147 Their schemes wanted unity of design, and the ill- assorted parts seldom harmonised together. Thus, although the French established military posts, and planted colonies throughout the whole of this region, they were so distant from each other, and so un- connected, as to afford no mutual support, nor could they ever be brought to act efficiently together, as C JO' component parts of any colonial or military system. The plan — or want of plan — was happily conceived for our benefit ; and was disadvantageous only to those, whose want of wisdom, and of vigour, deprived them of territory at an earlier period than that at which they would otherwise have lost it. It is curious to reflect upon the situation of these colonists. Their nearest civilised neighbours were the English on the shores of the Atlantic, distant a thousand miles, from whom they were separated by a barrier then insurmountable, and with whom they had no more intercourse than with the Chinese, Their countrymen, it is true, had posts throughout the west, but they were too distant for frequent intercourse, and they were peopled by those, who, like themselves, were disconnected from all the rest of the world. But the French brought with them, or found in their vicinity, certain elements of prosperity, which enabled them to flourish in spite of the disadvantages of their unprotected situation. They were unambitious and contented. It was always their policy to conciliate the natives, whom they invariably treated with a kindness and consideration never shown to that unhappy race by other Europeans, and with whom they pre- served a faith unbroken upon either side. 148 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. In a few years, Kaskaskia grew into a town, whose population has been variously estimated, at from I to 8,000 inhabitants ; the latter number is doubtless an exaggeration, but either of them indicates a won- derful population for a place having little commerce, no arts, and no surrounding territory. They lived chiefly by agriculture, hunting, and trading with the Indians. They possessed a country prolific in all the bounties of nature. The wild fruits were abundant. The grape, the plum, the persimmon, and the cherry, attain here a size unknown in less favoured regions. The delicate pecan, the hickory nut, the walnut, and the hazle, strew the ground during the autumn, excel- ling the corresponding productions of the Atlantic states, as much in size and flavour as in quantity. Of domestic fruits, the peach, the apple, and the pear, attain great perfection. Here the maple yields its sugar, and the cotton its fibre, the sweet potato and Indian corn yield abundantly, while wheat, and many other of the productions of colder countries, come to perfection. Around them were spread those magnificent natural meadows, that mock, in their extent and luxuriance, the highest efforts of human labour. The deer, the buffalo, and the elk, furnished in those da3^s bountiful supplies — the rivers abounded with fish — while the furry and the feathered tribes afforded articles for comfort and for trade. Surround- ed thus by good things, what more could a French- man have desired unless it were a violin and a glass of claret ? The former we are told they had, and we have good authority for saying, that they drank excel- lent wine from their own grapes. -K): I < 111- OF THE iMfi 1 1!> Of their civil, military, and religious institutions we have little mi record, but enough may he gathered to show that, though simple ami efficient, they were entirely anomalonsi The priests seem to have been prudent men. At a time when religious intolerance was sufficiently fashionable, we hear of no trouble among our French. The good men who regulated their consciences, seem to have prized "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit," so highly, as to be con- tent to pursue their own vocation in peace with all the world. The military SWay, which was para- mount, seems to have been equally mild — perhaps because it was equally undisputed — and as for the civil jurisdiction, we find so little trace of it, either on record, or in tradition, as to induce the belief that the people seldom needed its interposition. Some old (U'vdr^ which remain of record at Kaskaskia, are dated far hack as 1712, framed, of course, on the model of civil law, and written in a choice old provincial dialect. Their legal proceedings were brief and simple — so much so, that we, with our notions, should have called them arbitrary. Yet such was their attachment to their ancient customs, that with the kindest feelings' towards our country, and our people, they could ill brook the introduction of the common law, when tin ir territory was ceded to our government. They thought it- forms burthensome and complicated, and many of them removed to Louisiana, where the civil law was -till in force. Separated thus from all the world, these people acquired many peculiarities. In language, dress, and maimer-, they lost much of their original polish ; but 1M- 150 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. they retained, and still retain, many of the leading characteristics of their nation. They took care to keep up their ancient holidays and festivals ; and with few luxuries and fewer wants, .they were pro- bably as cheerful and as happy a people as any in existence. Kaskaskia, called in the old French records, " Notre dame de Cascasquias," is beautifully situated on the point of land formed by the junction of the Mississippi and Kaskaskia rivers. It is not at the point of confluence, but four miles above, where the rivers approach to within less than two miles of each other ; and the original plan of the town extended across from river to river. In this respect, the posi- tion is precisely analogous to that of Philadelphia. The point widens below the town, and embraces a large tract of immensely fertile land, mostly common, covered with plum, grape, pecan trees, and other of the richest productions of nature. Here a number of horses, turned loose by the first settlers, increased to large droves of animals, as wild as the original stock. They have now been in a state of nature for more than a century. The inhabitants catch and tame them when wanted for use ; and the " point horses," though small, are celebrated for their spirit and hardi- ness. The site of the town is on a level alluvial plain, composed of a deep and extremely rich soil. On the opposite side of the Kaskaskia river, the land is high and broken. This river is 350 feet wide opposite the town, and preserves a considerable width and depth, with a scarcely perceptible current, uninterrupted by an obstruction for more than fifty miles upwards ; SKE rCIIE3 OF Till WEST. 151 beyond tluit. tin- current i> still gentle, and the stream would be navigable for small boats, in high water, tc lalia, distant ninety-five miles bj land, and more than two bundred by the meanders of the river, it' s few obstructions, consisting entirely of fallen timber, should be removed. This village still retains many striking evidences of it- origin, and of the peculiar character of its inhabit- ants. Many of the old bouses remain, and afibrd curious specimens of the architecture of the people and the period. Borne of them were built of -tone, others were of framed timber, with the intersti tilled with cement. The] were usually plastered over with a bard mortar, and white-washed. The gaoli ends are often placed to face the BtlOO tS, and the neat roofs exhibited a heavi and singular construe- tion. The lion- ally but one story high, and spread out | , occupy a large surface; and of the better order were surrounded by piaa mfortable fashion still retained in the dwellini the planters in Louisiana. To almost all the houses, large gardV ns were attached, enclosed with high stone wall-, or by picketing, composed of large stakes planted perpendicularly in the ground. The mhabit- ted a L r re-:t profusion of fruits and Bowers; although abstemious in their diet, lived in i The old church at Kask is a venerable pile, which, although more than a century old, is still in a tolerable Btate of preservation, and is used a- a place of worship by the Catholic inhabitants. It is verj large, and is built in a quaint old fashioned style. 152 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. The construction of the roof is a great curiosity ; its extensive and massy surface being supported by an immense number of pieces of timber, framed together with great neatness and accuracy, and crossing each other at a variety of different angles, so that no part of the structure can by any possibility sink until the whole shall fall together. In this church are several valuable old records, and among others a baptismal register, containing the generations of the French settlers from about the year 1690. In 1763, France ceded her possessions east of the Mississippi, to England. Captain Philip Pittman of the English army, visited " the country of Illinois," in 1770, and published an account of it, from which we glean the following particulars. Kaskaskia con- tained at that time, according to Captain Pittman, sixty-five families, besides merchants, casual people, and slaves, an enumeration which we have reason to suppose fell greatly short of the truth. The fort, which was burnt down in 1766, stood on the summit of a high rock opposite the town, on the other side of the Kaskaskia river. Its shape was an oblong quadrangle, of which, the exterior polygon measured 290 by 251 feet. It was built of very thick squared timber, dovetailed at the angles. An officer and twenty soldiers were quartered at the village in 1770, and the inhabitants were formed into two companies of militia. The officer governed the village, under the direction of the commandant at Fort Chartres. La Prairie de Rocher, thirteen miles from Kaskas- kia, is described as being, at that time, a " small village, with twelve dwelling-houses." The number SKK1< II l> 09 ill! WKi 153 must certainly have bean much greater, as there wen two hundred inhabitants in 1820, when the village had fallen to decay. Here was ■ little chapel, formerly a chapel of eaae to the church at Fort Chartres. The village was distant from the fort seveu miles, and took it- name from its situation, being built at the base of i high parapet of rock, that runs parallel to the Mississippi. " Saint Philippe," aaj - ( aptain Pittman, " is a small village, about five miles from Fort Chartres, on the road t<> Kaoquias; there are about sixteen houses, and a small church standing; all the inhabitants, except the captain of militia, deserted it in 17»i~>, and went to the French side. The captain of militia has about *\ slaves, a good stock of cattle, and a watermill. This village stands in i very fine meadow, about one mile from the Mississippi." " The village of Saint Famille de Kaoquias," says the same writer, " contains forty-five dwellings, and a church near it- centre. The situation is not well chosen, being overflowed. It was the first settlement on the Mississippi. The land was purchased of the savages, by a few Canadians, some of whom married women of the Kaoquias nation, and others brought wive- from Canada. The inhabitants depend more on hunting and their Indian trade, than agriculture, as they scarce raise corn enough for their own consump- tion. They have a great deal of poultry, and good Blocks of horned cattle* The mission of Saint Sulpice had a fine plantation here, and a good house on it. They sold tlii>; estate, and a very good mill for corn and planks, to a Frenchman, who chose to remain 154 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. here under the English government. What is called the fort, is a small building in the centre of the village, which diners nothing from the other houses, except being the meanest. It was enclosed with palisades, but these are rotted or burnt. There is no use for a fort here." Some curious facts are also recorded in a rare volume, written by Daniel Coxe of New Jersey, who visited this region, during the occupancy of the French. Fort Chartres, when it belonged to France, was the seat of government of the Illinois country. It was afterwards the head quarters of the English command- ing officer, who was in fact the arbitrary governor of this region. The shape of the fort was an irregular quadrangle, with four bastions. The sides of the exterior polygon were about 490 feet in extent. ' It was designed only as a defence against Indians. The walls, which were of stone and plastered over, were two feet two inches thick, and fifteen feet high, with loop-holes at regular distances, and two port-holes for camion in each face, and two in the flanks of each bastion. The ditch was never finished. The entrance was through a handsome rustic gate. Within the wall was a small banquette, raised three feet, for the men to stand upon when they fired through the loop- holes. Each port or loop-hole, was formed of four solid blocks of rock, of freestone, worked smooth. All the cornices and casements about the gate and buildings were of the same material, and appeared to great advantage. The buildings within the fort, were the command- BKSTCHB8 01 nn: WBRi 1 56 ant's and ccminissary'fl bon magazine ofstoi carpi ardct and two barracks, occupying t)»«- square. ^\\" it 1 1 i ■ 1 tfa f the bastions were a powder magazine, ;i bake-house, a prison, in the lower floor of which were four dungeons, and in the upper, two i smaller buildings. The commandant's bouse was oinety-su feel long and thirt) d< i dining-r a, a bed-chamber, a parlour, a kitchen, five closets for servants, and a cellar. The commi bouse was built in a lm<' with tlii-, and its proportions and distribution of apart- ments uric the same. Opposite th< se, were the store- house and guard-house; cadi ninety feet Long bj twenty-f i d ;>. The former contained two large store-rooms, with vaulted cellars under the whol< • room, a bed-chamber, and a closet for the * and officers' guard rooms, a chapel, a mber, and closet f<>r the chaplain, and an artill a. The lines of barracks, two in Dumber, wer completely finished. They dated of two rooms in each line for officers, and three for I liersj they were good, spacious rooms, of twenty-two feet square, with passages between them. All these buildings w< masonry, and well finished. There \\ fts over each build- chin r from end t i end, which were made use of to contain regimental . working and entrench- ing tools, dec. [l erally allowed that this was the most commodious and best built fort in North America. The bank of the Mississippi next the fort, was continually foiling in, being worn awaj by the current which was turned from its course 1»\ ■ aand- 156 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. bar that soon increased to an island, and became covered with willows. Many experiments were tried to stop this growing evil, but to no purpose. When the fort was begun in 1756, it was half a mile from the water side ; in 1766, it was eighty paces ; and the western angle has since been undermined by the water. In 1762, the river was fordable to the sand-bar ; in 1770, the latter was separated from the shore by a channel forty feet deep. Such are the changes of the Mississippi. In the year 1764, there were about forty families in the village of Fort Chartres, and a parish church, served by a Franciscan friar, dedicated to St. Anne. In the following year, when the Eng- lish took possession of the country, they abandoned their houses, except three or four poor families, and settled at the villages on the west side of the Mis- sissippi, choosing to continue under the French govern- ment. The writer visited the ruins of Fort Chartres in 1829. It was situated, as well as the villages above- named, on the American bottom, an extensive and remarkably fertile plain, bounded on one side by the river, and on the other by a range of bluffs, whose summits are level with the general surface of the country. The bluffs are steep, and have the appear- ance of having once formed the eastern bank of the Mississippi. It would seem that they composed a continuous, even, and nearly perpendicular parapet, separating the plain which margins the river, from the higher plain of the main land. But the ravines washed by rains, have indented it in such a manner, as to divide the summit into a series of rounded ele- BRED n OF THE WOT. K>7 vat ii »ns, which often present the appearance of a range of Indian mounds. These Mafia arc bo called when hare of timber, which is their usual character \ and \\ hen their beautifully graceful undulations are exposed to the eye, they form one of the moat remarkable and attractive features of the scenery of this country. When timbered they do not differ from ordinary hills. We approached Fort Chartres in the summery when the native fruit trees « ire loaded with their rich pro- duct-. Meyer did we behold the fruits of the forest growing in such abundance, or such amazing luxu- riance. Immense thickets of the wild plum might be seen, as we rode over the prairie, extending for miles along its edges, so loaded with crimson fruit as to exhibit to the eye a long streak of glowing red. Sometimes we rode through thickets of crab-apple, equally prolific, and sometimes the road wound through copses matted with grape vines, bearing a profusion of rich clusters. Although the spot was familiar to my companion, it was with some difficulty that we found the ruins, which are now covered and surround- ed with a young but vigorous and gigantic growth of . and with a dense undergrowth of bushe- and vines, through which we forced our way with considerable labour. Even the crumbling pile itself i- thus overgrown, the tall trees rearing their sterns from pile- of stone, and the vines creeping over the tottcrinir walls. The buildings were all razed to the ground, hut the line- of the foundations could be easily traced, a large vaulted powder magazine remained in nood preservation. The exterior wall, the most interesting vestige, as it gave the general outline of VOL. I 1 1 158 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. the whole, was thrown down in some places ; but in many, retained something like its original height and form ; and it was curious to see in the gloom of a wild forest, these remnants of the architecture of a past age. One angle of the fort, and an entire bastion, had been undermined and swept away by the river, which, having expended its force in this direction, was again retiring, and a narrow belt of young timber had grown up between the water's edge and the ruins. Many curious anecdotes might still be picked up in relation to these early settlers"; especially in Illi- nois and Missouri, where the Spanish, French, English, and American authorities have had sway in rapid succession. At one time the French had possession of one side of the Mississippi, and the Spaniards of the other, and a story is told of a Spaniard living on one shore, who, being the creditor of a Frenchman resid- ing on the other, seized a child, the daughter of the latter, and having borne her across the river, which formed a national boundary, held her as a hostage for the payment of the debt. The civil authorities, re- spectively, declined interfering ; the military did not think the matter sufficiently important to create a national war, and the Frenchman had to redeem his offspring by discharging the creditor's demand. The lady who was thus abduced is still living, or was living a few years ago, near Cahokia, the mother of a numerous progeny of American French people. Having spoken of the pacific disposition evinced by the French in their early intercourse with the Indian tribes, it is proper to remark, that we allude particu- larly to those who settled on the Wabash and upper -Ki i « iii> 01 i in: w 1 1")!» Mississippi. Thej have ever) where treated the savages with more kindness and greater justice than 1 1 m • people of other nations; but there have been Kceptions, which we are nol disposed to conceal or palliate. In lower Louisiana, they emulated] in some instances, the cruelty <»t* the Spaniards and the rapa- city of the English; hut in Illinois, their conduct towards their uncivilised neighbours seems to have been uniformly friendly and amiable; and the descend- ants of the firs! settlers of thai state .-till enjoy the confidence of the Indian tribes. ^ e have heard of an occasion on which this re- ciprocal kindness was very strongly shown. Many years ago, a murder having been committed in some broil, three Indian young men were given up. by the Kaskaskia tribe, to the civil authorities of the newly established American government. The population of Kaskaskia was still entirely French, who felt much sympathy for their Indian friends, and saw these hard proceedings of the law with great dissatis- faction. The ladies, particularly, took a warm inte- rest in the fate of the young aboriginals, and deter- mined, if they must die, they should at least be converted to Christianity in the mean while, and be baptised into the true church. Accordingly, after due preparation, arrangements were made for a public baptism of the neophyt i 161 were suited to the soil and climate. The consequence was that the great mass of them became poor, the spirit of enterprise was extinguished, and tht\ gn-w M inert B8 the\ were inoffensive. They became boat- men and hunters, and the labours of nine tenths of the population on distant lakes and rivers, exposed to danger, privation, and death, served only to augment the wealth, of a few traders and merchants. The physical strength of a community, depends more on agriculture than on any other pursuit* The ancient French were ignorant of this truth, and their des- cendants have not learned it to this day. They seldom attempted any thing more than the cultiva- tion of their gardens, and the raising of a little grain for their own consumption. In the mechanic arts they made no progress; they still use some of the implements of agriculture introduced by their fore- fathers a century ago ; and drive vehicles, such as w. re in fashion in some provinces of France at the same period. But they were contented. The most perfect equality reigned among them. They lived in harmony, all danced to the same violin, and preserved their national vivacity and love of amusement. When their country came into the possession of the American government, they were displeased with the change. There never was a stronger instance of the unfitness of republican institutions for an ignorant peo- ple. Accustomed to be ruled by the officers of the French crown, and to bestow no thought on matters of public policy, they disliked the machinery of muni- cipal institutions, which they did not understand, and considered it a hardship to be called upon to elect 14* 162 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. officers, or perform civil duties. It is said that a few years ago, when the inhabitants of one of these vil- lages were told ihat it would be proper for them to attend an election, to vote for a member of congress, one of their principal men declared that it was an imposition to send any man so far from home — that he would not go to congress, nor would he assist in imposing such an unpleasant duty upon any of his neighbours. The influx of a population dissimilar to themselves in manners, language, religion, and habits, displeased them ; the enterprise and fondness for improvement of the American settlers, fretted and annoyed them. The land lying waste around them, they had consi- dered as a kind of common property — the natural in- heritance of their children and countrymen ; and when any one wished to convert a portion of it to his own use, he applied to the lieutenant-governor, who granted a concession for a certain number of acres. But now they saw all this domain surveyed and offered for sale to the highest bidder ; and there was a fair prospect, that, in a few years, there would be no wilderness remaining to hunt in, and no range for their wild ponies and cattle. When the American government, therefore, took possession of the country, the majority of the wealth- iest inhabitants removed, — some to St. Louis, which was rising into a promising commercial town, and others to lower Louisiana, where they could enjoy their own laws, customs, and language. The more indigent scattered themselves along the frontier, and became boatmen, hunters, and interpreters, in the -k i i < H Bf Of Tin: w r- 1 . L68 employ of Indian traders. A remnant r nmrinftd t whom) descendants are still ■ peculiar people, l>nt are slowly, though perceptibly, losing their distinctive oharacter, and becoming amalgamated with the surrounding popu- lation. Another anecdote of these times is worth recording. When General George Rogers Clarke, the Hannibal >f the west, captured Kaskaskia, he made his head- quavers at the house of a Mr. Michel A , one of the weakhiest inhabitants. Michel lived in ■ capital French house, enveloped with piazzas and surrounded by gardens — all in the most approved style. He was a merry, contented, happy man, abounding in good living and good stories, and as hospitable as anv gen- tleman whatever. The general remained his guest some time, treated with the greatest kindness and at- tention, and took leave of Mr. A. with a high respect for his character, and a grateful sense of his warm- hearted hospitality. Years rolled away : General Clarke had retired from public life, and was dwelling in a humble log house in Indiana, a disappointed man. His brilliant services had not been appreciated by his country : his political prospects had been blighted; he was unemployed and unhappy — a proud man, conscious of merit, pining away bis life in obscurity. One day, as he -trolled along the hanks of the Ohio, he espied a circle of French boatmen, the crew of a barcre, who were b >ated round a fire on the beach, smoking their pipes, and singing their merry French songs. One voice arrested his ear — it was that of bis old friend Michel; he could not mistake the blithe tones, and ever buoyant humour, of his former host. He ap- 164 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. proached, and there sat Michel in the garb of a boat- man, with a red cap on his head, the merriest of the circle. They recognised each other instantly. Michel was as glad to see the general, and invited him to take a seat on the log beside him with as much unembar- rassed hospitality, as if he had still been in his spa- cious house, surrounded by his train of servants. He had suddenly been reduced from affluence to poverty — from a prosperous gentleman, who lived comfortably on his estate, to a boatman — the cook, if we mistake not, of a barge. Although a man of vivacity and strong mind, he was illiterate and unsuspecting. The change of government had brought in new laws, new customs, and keener speculators than the honest French had been accustomed to deal with, and Michel was ruined. But he was as happy as ever ; while his friend, the general, whose change of circum- stances had not been so sudden or complete, was a moody, discontented man. Such is the diversity of national character. -kin ii i> or i in w i> i . !»;."» (ii \ptf.r ii. Founding of St. Louil — Tl ' tlint colony — Tnnaffef to V' net by tin- Indians — Ii.-. With \, \ V Oilcans — A | rilant exploit — < Niw r I'ri nob s> ui.jmnt-. The city of St. Louis \\a< founded in the j ear l' ,; i. krj Monsieur Laclede, one <>f the partBen in ■ ntorcaa- til«' aoaociation, known under the name of Laclede, Li- rte, Maxan ^v CSomnany, to whom (he director general of tlit- province of Fi^rittenri hud granted the exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians of the Missouri, and those west of the Mississippi, al)Ove the Mi— "ii! up a> the ri ve r St l*« t « r. Thetnf- fic in fan and peltry with theee dietanl tribes, though of groat vsone, weald have been onavailahle without a suitable place for the deposit of nerebandise j and to induce the company t.. hazard the establishment of men a depot, which would also serve a< the nucleus of new settlements west of the Mississippi, extensive powers were given to the gentlemen engaged in this nalcipiiscj. M. Laclede, therefore, formed an expedi- tion, at the head of which he set out from New Or* mans, on the 8d of August, 1768, and arrived at Ste. Genoa ievo, where it seems there was already ■ small settlement, <>n the 8d of No v e mb er — the voyage which i- uow accomplished in ten days 1»\ our steamboats, occupying those adventurers three months, with their inferior meant of transportation. This point being too 166 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. distant from the Missouri, he proceeded to the mouth of that river, and on his return fixed upon the site. Having wintered at Fort Chartres, and gained some recruits at that place, Cahokia, and Ste. Genevieve, he commenced, on the 15th of February, 1764, the work of cutting down trees and laying out a town, which he called St. Louis, after the reigning king o' France. In consequence of some subsequent distress, on account of a scarcity of provisions, it received the popular name of Pain Court, by which it was called for many years. M. Auguste Chouteau, then about fourteen years of age, who has since been one of the most opulent and enterprising of the citizens of that place, and is but recently deceased, was of the party which laid the foundation of this flourishing city. In the selection of this site, a degree of sagacity was shown, which has seldom marked such transac- tions. The spot is elevated above the inundations of the river, from whose margin the ground rises gra- dually, and is based on a thick stratum of rock, which affords the most admirable materials for building. Above and below, along the river, was an abundance of timber, and to the west an unlimited expanse of fertile prairies ; while on the east were the rich plains of Illinois. A short distance below were the lead mines, which have, for half a century past, afforded a valuable article of trade ; a few miles above the town, the Missouri and Illinois rivers united their w r aters with those of the Mississippi, extending the channels of intercourse throughout a vast interior region ; and this obscure spot in the heart of a great continent, and far distant from the ocean, was visited by the birch 9K1 1 < ni> 01 ill i : K i - i • 107 canoes from Quebec, aa well as bj the barges from Nru Orleans. In July, 1765, Fori <1«' Chartres waa evaouatad by the French, and M. St. Louis with the troops, and assumed the reins of government. From thia time St. Louia waa considered aa the capital of I pper Louisi- ana. Having organised b government, one of hia firat waa to parcel the land t<> the — • - t 1 1 * r8, to whom M. Laclede had given possession, but not titles. ll<' accordingly made the Lh-rc lej?ien y oi land- book, in whi< h grants of kind were not recorded only, hut original^ written, and a eopy of the entry made in thia book constituted the evidence of title in the hands of the grantee* These concessions were not considered as inchoate grants, which were to be rati- fied by a higher authority, hut as perfect titles, inde- pendent <>f any condition, except those of the land being subject to taxation, and being improved by the grantee, within a limited time The mode of obtain- ing grants was by petition or requetei addressed to the commandant; and the concession generally ran. after reciting the application,' thus : *On the day and afbresaidj at the request of .we have granted, and do grant to him, his heirs, and assigns, the lot (or piece of land, describing it< contents, boundaries, locality), which he prays tor, with the condition that he shall establish it within a year and a day. and that it shall be subject to the public charges. St. \ s Nearly the same form of concession was used in the Spanish authority. There was usually, howi a stipulation contained in them, that in ease the condi- 168 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. tions of improvement and cultivation should not be complied with, the lands should revert to the king, and some instances are found in the Livre Terrien, where that resumption has taken place. At first these grants were proportioned to the means of the applicant, but at a later period they were made to all who chose to apply for them, to any extent, unconditionally, and without reference to the ability of the applicant. The policy of the government, in making the grants, was to settle the country ; but the remoteness of this pro- vince, and the extent of the authority necessarily placed in the hands of the lieutenant governors, en- abled them to abuse this power, and it is said to have degenerated into a system of favoritism. Up to a certain period, the means of the cultivator were taken as the criterion by which the magnitude of the grant was regulated, and as there was no public surveyor, the difficulty of locating large tracts, and settling the boundaries, may have deterred many from attempting such speculations. But these obstacles, if they were such, were removed by the appointment of a surveyor general, in 1795, and the number of concessions in- creased with incredible rapidity, especially in the period immediately preceding the occupation of the country by the American government. Previous to the appointment of M. Soulard, as surveyor general, in 1795, the whole number of arpens of land conceded to individuals did not exceed 50,000 ; but the number granted after that appointment, amounted to 2,150,969. The government of the United States recognises the validity of all titles to real estate acquired under the French or Spanish governments ; but the great number INTI ii i> Of tin: \\ i:st. 169 of these grants, and the negligence with which they were made, baa caused great perplexity to congress, and to the courts of law* Under the administration ofM. St. Ange, St. Louis assumed the appearance of a town, and the foundations of social order were laid. The soldiers became amal- gamated with the inhabitants; comfortable dwellings were erected ; and the comm m //'• / ft, as they are now call d, were opened and improved. All accounts which have reached us, a7. was founded Vuide Poche, which, in 1796, took the name of Carondelet. Florissant was founded in 17(59: Lea Petitea Cotes was settled in 1709, and called St. Chariee in 1804. The inhabitants of St. Louis continued for about fiftei n years to live in perfect harmony with the In- dians, without molestation, and without any apprehen- sion of danger. The first hostilities do not appear to have arisen out of any quarrel between the parties themselves, but resulted from the contest raging be- tween Great Britain and her colonies. In 1777, a rumour came to this remote spot, that an attack would shortly he made upon the town, by the Canadians and such Indians as were friendly to the English. The village was then almost destitute of military defences, but the inhabitants, including little more than a hun- dred men, immediately proceeded to inclose it with a kind of wall, about six feet high, formed of the trunks of small trees, planted in the ground, the interstices being filled with earth. It described a semiciicle, resting upon the river, above tfhd below the town, flanked by a small fort at one extremity, and a less important work at the other. It had three gates for egress towards the country, each defended by a piece of heavy ordnance, which was kept continually charged. For a while, these preparations seemed to have been needless; winter passed away, and spring came, without any attack; the labours of husbandry were resumed, and the villagers laid aside their fears, and their military exercises. In May, 1778, the attack was made, in a manner characteristic of the times and place. The force of 172 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. the enemy, consisting of a motley band of about four- teen hundred men, collected from various tribes resid- ing on the lakes, and the Mississippi — Ojibeways, Menomenies, Winnebagoes, Sioux, Saukies, and some Canadians — assembled on the eastern shore of the Mississippi, a little above St. Louis, awaiting the 6th of May, the day fixed for the attack. The 5th of May was the feast of Corpus Christi, a day highly venerated by the inhabitants, who were all Catholics. An assault on that day would have been fatal ; for after attending divine service, the villagers, old and young, men, women, and children, sallied out in all the glee of a catholic holiday, unsuspicious of danger, to the neighbouring prairie, to gather the ripe strawberries, of which there was a great profusion. The town, left unguarded, could have been easily taken. A few only of the enemy, however, had crossed the river : and these, lying ambushed in the prairie, made no effort to disturb the peaceable villagers, who were frequently so near as to be almost in contact with the lurking savages. But the latter either did not discover the total desertion of the town, or with the known perti- nacity of the Indian character, determined to adhere to the preconcerted plan of attack. The enemy crossed the river on the 6th, and march- ed to the fields, where they expected to find the most of the villagers engaged in their agricultural pursuits. It happened that but few were there, who fled under a shower of bullets, and barely escaped with the aid of their friends in the village, who, on hearing the alarm, rushed to the gates, which they threw open to receive their comrades, and then closed against the enemy. tfCSTI tOM 51 i hi: wt.st. 173 The Inhabitants, men and women, acted with spirit, and the -aval's, after receiving a WW discharges of grape shot, ntircd, alter killing about twenty of the whites. An Indelible stain was fixed upon the charac- ter «.(' the commandant, Leyba, who not only took no shari- of the danger, hut even commanded the inhabit-' ant- t.i cease fijrifyr, and used such exertions to cripple the defence, that he was suspected of treachery; while his lieutenant, Cartaboiia, with >i\f \ soldiers, re- mained concealed in a garret during the whole action. Tic leader ot* colonial history, will be struck with the Coincidence of this event with many which occurred in all the American colonies, under whatever foreign dominion j the inhabitants were often plunged into war- with the Indians, with whom they had no quar- rel, by the policy of their superiors — wars, of which the edict- fell solelj upon themselves, which were prosecuted by their arms, and successfully terminated h\ their valour. This first attack upon St. Louis, formed an era in the history of the place, and the year in which it occurred Is still designated by the inhabit- ants as " L'umirc du grand co»//;." The town was afterwards more -trongly fortified, and was not again molested by the Indians. In the month of April, 1785, there was an unparal- leled rise of the Mississippi, which swelled to the extraordinary height of thirty feet above the highest water mark previously known. The town of Kaskas- kia was completely inundated, and the whole of the Ar;:cricttn Bottom overflowed. This year forms an- other era in the reminiscences of the old inhabitants, l.v 174 SKKCHM OF THE WW. who call it the year of the great waters — ;; L'annee des grande.s eau The intercourse with New Orleans was at this period neither frequent nor easy. The only mode of transporting merchandise, was by means of keel- boats and barges, which descended the river in the wring, and returned late in the autumn. The pre- parations for a voyage to the city, as New Orleans was called, were as extensive and deliberate, as those which would now be made for a voyage to the East Indies. Instead of the rapid steamboats which ren- der the navigation of our Long rivers bo easy, they had the tardy and fraii barge, slowly propelled by human labour. There was also danger, as well as difficulty, in the enterprise ; a numerous band of robbers, under the command of two men named Culbert and Magil- bray, having stationed themselves at a place called " La riviere aux hards," Cottonwood creek, where they carried on a regular and extensive system of piracy. As the ?oyage was long, and the communi- cation between the two ports was attempted but once a year, the boats were generally so richly laden, that the capture of one of them afforded wealth to the plunderers, and brought ruin upon the owner. An incident of this description, illustrative of the fact which I allude, I will narrate, as I find it in an excel- lent article on the history of St. Louis, from which I have already quoted liberally.* In the spring of 17-7, a barge belonging to Mr. Beausoliel, had started from New Orleans, jichly * Illinois Monthly Magazine, 1 7 8 a with i ' «. A« < • k. a btaeae ■prang up and r in ii'tl\ b) . I lis th< and immediately j of men up n\-r fol the p ur pose i>t" heai:i:._. Tin man-i was winch has ■ aueoliel's is! ind. id jusl pul . and ii down. The dm d m • r\ part of 1 1 soli- i all he possessed in the purchase of the barge ami it- ear* go, and now that This I the - .t had ; I it, but 1*. -r the gro, who wai I tan rath* dinarv height, \ in person, but of um activity, i and the curl of bifl hair, al I "that I >r the peculiar chat had :i place, in him, to wh arty. j I - - - ■ _ • - that und r circumstance^ loua in the histoi I . as soo; : began to n. ;' uncontrollable 176 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. joy. He danced, sang, laughed, and soon induced his captors to believe that they had liberated him from irksome slavery, and that his actions were the ebulli- tions of pleasure. His constant attention to their smallest wants and wishes, too, won their confidence, and whilst they kept a watchful eye on the other prisoners, they permitted him to roam through the vessel unmolested and unwatched. 'J "his was the state of things that the negro desired ; he seized the first opportunity to speak to Mr. Beausoliel, and beg permission to rid him of the dangerous intruders. He laid his plan before his master, who, after a great deal of hesitation, acceded to it. Cacasotte then spoke to two of the crew, likewise negroes, and en- gaged them in the conspiracy. Cacasotte was cook, and it was agreed between him and his fellow con- spirators, that the signal for dinner should be the signal for action. The hour of dinner at length ar- rived. The robbers assembled in considerable num- bers on the deck, and stationed themselves at the bow and stern, and along the sides, to prevent any rising of the men. Cacasotte went among them with the most unconcerned look and demeanour imaginable. As soon as he perceived that his comrades had taken the stations he had assigned to them, he took his posi- tion at the bow of the boat, near one of the robbers, a stout, herculean man, who was armed cap-a-pie. Every thing being arranged to his satisfaction, Caca- sotte gave the preconcerted signal, and immediately the robber near him was struggling in the waters. With the speed of lightning, he went from one robber to another, and in less than three minutes, he had -Krn 111- ( »F tuk wi:st. 177 thrown fourteen of thrni overboard. Then seizing an oar, lie struck on the head those wh<» attempted to save themselves by grappling the running boards, then Shot with the muskets that had been dropped mi deck, those who swam away. In the mean time, the other conspirators were not idle, hut did almosl a- much execution as their leader. The deck was soon cleared, and the robbers that remained below, were too lew in number to ofler any resistance. Having eol nd of his troublesome visiters, .Mr. Beausoliel deemed it prudent to return to New Or- leans. This he accordingly did, taking care when he arrived near the Cottonwood creek, to keep the oppo- site side of the river. He reached New Orleans and gave an account of his capture and liberation to the governor, who thereupon issued an order, that the boats bound for St. Louis in the following spring, should all go in company, to afford mutual assistance in case of necessity. Spring came, and ten keel- boats, each provided with swivels, and their respective crews well armed, took their departure from New Or- leans, determined, if possible, to destroy the nest of robbers. When they ueared the Cottonwood creek, the foremost boat perceived several men near the mouth, among the trees. The anchor was dropped, and she waited until the other boats should come up. In a few moments they appeared, and a consultation was held, in which it was determined that a sufficient number of men should remain on board, whilst the others Bhould proceed <>n shore to attack the robbers. The boats were rowed to shore in a line, and those appointed for that purpose, landed and began to search 178 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. the island in quest of the robbers, but in vain ? They had disappeared. Three or four flat-boats were found in a bend of the creek, laden with all kinds of valuable merchandise — the fruits of their depredations. A long low hut was discovered — the dwelling of the robbers — in which were stored away numerous cases of guns, (destined for the fur trade,) ammunition and provisions of all kinds. The greater part of these things were put on board the boats, and restored to their re- spective owners, at St. Louis. This proceeding had the effect of dispersing the robbers, for they were never after heard of. The arrival of ten barges together at St. Louis, was an unusual spectacle, and the year 1788 has ever since been called the year vf the ten boats. As we do not design to speak of the history of the French settlements in minute detail, we shall only add that there were several others, cotemporaneous with those which we have mentioned, the chief of which were Detroit and Vincennes. The former was founded in 1670, the latter in 1702. The manners and habits of the people, and their adventures, were similar to those we have described ; except that Detroit being situated at a more exposed point, and surrounded by warlike tribes, who were engaged in hostilities with each other, experienced more of the vicissitudes of war. The French seem to have been mainly induced to penetrate into these remote regions, in search of the precious metals ; an eager desire for which had been awakened in Europe by the discoveries of the Span- iards in South America, and by a general belief of the SKI H l!l> UF THE WEST. 179 existence of similar treasures on the northern conti- nent. Thai such was the (act, la sufficiently proved by the frequent mention of mines and minerala] ba ;ill the ebarten and larger grants of territory made by the French crown, as irelJ u l>\ the aumerous and «\- sive efforts of individuals and companies, in the pursuit of the preci us ores. The leaders in these enterprises were gentlemen of education and talents, \\li«> bad no inducements to remain in these remote settlements, after the dis» appointment of their hopes, and either returned to France, or settled in Lower Louisiana, where they found a more L r <'i>ial climate than in the higher lati- tude-. The remainder were pacific and illiterate rus- tics, who brought no property, nor entertained any ambitious views. Few of them had come prepared for either agricultuml or commercial pursuits, and when tfa of sudden wealth, with whieh they had been d in led, laded from before them, they were not disposed to engage in the ordinary employmeoti industry. Perhaps the inducement, as well as the means, was wanting. There was little •ut for agriculture, where there was no market for produce : there could be few arts, and but little commerce, at points BO distant from the abodes of civilised men. They were besides an unenterpris> iag and contented race, who were ignorant of the prolific resources of the country around them, sod destitute of the slightest perception of its probable des- tin\ — it- rapid advancement in population and im- provement Whatever might have been the views of their government, the French settlers indulged no 180 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. ambitious visions, and laid no plans, either for territo- rial aggrandisement, or political domination. They made no attempt to acquire land from the Indians, to organise a social system, to introduce municipal regu- lations, or to establish military defences ; but cheer- fully obeyed the priests and the king's officers, and enjoyed the present, without troubling their heads about the future. They seem to have been even care- less as to the acqusition of property., and its transmis- sion to their heirs. Finding themselves in a fruitful country, abounding in game, where the necessaries of life could be procured with little labour, where no re- straints were imposed by government, and neither tribute nor personal service was exacted, they were content to live in unambitious peace, and comfortable poverty. They took possession of so much of the vacant land around them, as they were disposed to till, and no more. Their agriculture was rude ; and even to this day, some of the implements of husbandry, and modes of cultivation, brought from France a cen- tury ago, remain unchanged by the march of mind, or the hand of innovation. Their houses were comforta- ble, and they reared fruits and flowers ; evincing, in this respect, an attention to comfort and luxury, which has not been practised among the English or Ameri- can first settlers ; but in the accumulation of property, and in all the essentials of industry, they were indolent and improvident, rearing only the bare necessaries of life, and living from generation to generation without change or improvement. The only new arts which the French adopted, in consequence of their change of residence, were those SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 1"1 connected with the fur trade. The fewwho wen BO- .1 in merchandise, turned their attention almost exclusively t<> the traffic with the Indians, while ■ number became hunters and boatmen* The S . and couriers stones,) upon which account the governor, upon their return, presented each of hifl companions with a golden horse-shoe, (some of which I have seen studded with valuable stone-, resembling the heads of nails,) with this inscription on one side: .sit' jurat traiucendfrt montiw : and on the other is written, The TramvAitunc Order. M This lie instituted to i ocourage gentlemen to ven- ture l»a 09 Tin: w i - 1 . 1 **7 in crowds to watering-places, in the romantic ralleyi of tin' Alleghany chain. - In 17^!>. at the commencement of the war I it Britain and Spain, Sp , who wis no* longer poor, was placed ;it the head of the colonial troops of Virginia, and assured thai hi- favourite project, <»t" occupying tin- i red by the <>hi<>, should be carried into immediate operation. Some preparations made, and the -j>irit of adv< oture wa awakened in Virginia; but the death <'i" Spots* caused the enterprise to 1»<- abandoned. The situation of Pittsburg, at the head of the Ohio, and at the confluence i f th<- Monongahela and Alle- ghany ri is probably first ooticed for its milil rather than it- commercial adyan vl hen the French determined blish a chain <>j" posts :' Canada to Louis ie of t!. important Fort du Q , * hen hi this country several years before the revolution, on a mission from th< oment of Virginia; and, in nil despatches, he spoke of its importance with a pro- phetic spirit. During the struggle, which is commonly called "Braddock*s War," in 1756, Fort l>a Qu changed masters ; and the English, abandoning the rinal work, which was probably a built a n jdar fortification on a rite immediately adjoining, which they named Foti Pitt. This erected on a l<»w point of land, and commanded by hills (.n everj si uld appear, to a soldier" of the • nt day, t<» have been untenable, and consequently useless; nor can the reasons of it- original establish- 188 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. merit and subsequent importance be ascertained, with- out recurring to the history of those times. As a place of deposit for military stores, it possessed singu- lar advantages in the facilities which it afforded for their transportation — as there is no other spot from which they could have been distributed with equal celerity, or over so large an extent of country. Nor was its situation, with regard to defence, so desperate as we might at first imagine. It is to be recollected, that in those days there was little or no artillery west of the mountains ; and that it was considered as almost impossible to pass the Alleghany ridge with a carriage of any description. There was little reason to appre- hend that any ordnance would be brought to assail the ramparts of that insulated fortress, which seemed des- tined to assert the sway of Britain over a boundless wilderness. But, notwithstanding this imaginary secu- rity, the works, of which there are extensive ruins still visible, seem to have been built after the usual fashion of that period, and to have had the strength, as well as the form, of a regular fortification. A bomb- proof magazine was extant, a {ew years ago, in good preservation. This fort is said to have been built by Lord Stanwin, and to have cost the British govern- ment sixty thousand pounds sterling. As it would seem, by placing it at this exposed spot, that an attack by artillery was not apprehended ; and as, if such an attack had been made, resistance would have been in vain — it is difficult to conceive what could have been the motives of the builders in giving it such strength and regularity. We must either suppose that their military habits prevailed over the better dictates of U i n ii H Of 'mi: w i> i . 1 89 prudence, or that tin \ intended to impress their [ndian neighbours with an exalted opinion (.r their security and power. It is said, that, Bhortly after the English sion, the Indian traders built a row of fine brick houses cu the margin of th<- Alleghany, but that their foundations were sapped l»\ the encroachments of the rifer ; do vestige of them remains. Al i the 17(i<>. a small town was built near Fort Pitt, which contained Dearly two hundred sonls .- but <>n the iking out of tin' Indian war, in 1763, the inhabit- ants retired into tin- fort, and their dwellings wire Buffered t<> fall into decay. The British ofhN some fine gardens here, railed tin- " King's," and "Artillery" gardens, and large orchards of choice fruit ; the old inhabitants of the present town recollect them; hut there are now no remains of these early attempts at luxury and comfort After Fort Pitt came into the possession of the Americans it was occupied hut for a BDort time, when the garrison was removed to a spot about a mile further up, on the Alleghany river, where a picket- work and block-houses were erected, and called Fort Fayette. This post was occupied by the United State-* troops until the erection, within a few years past, of the arsenal, two miles further up. Pittsburg was fust laid out in the year 1765 ; it was afterwards laid out, surveyed, and completed on its present plan, in 1784, by Colonel (leor^e Woods, by order of Tench Francis, Esq. attorney for John Penn, and John Penn, junior. The increase of the town was not rapid until the year 17'J'J, in con- sequence of the inroads of the savage tribes, which 190 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. impeded the growth of the neighbouring settlements. The western insurrection, more generally known as the " Whiskey War," once more made this the scene of commotion, and is said to have given Pittsburgh a new and reviving impulse, by throwing a considerable sum of money into circulation. Since that time it has increased rapidly, and a few years ago was erect- ed into a city. In 1765, John Carver explored the western country, confining himself chiefly to the regions in the vicinity of the northern lakes. He was a native of Connecti- cut, and a captain in the British army. After having spent two years and a half in dangerous and painful wanderings, and traveled seven thousand miles, he went to England with his family, in 1769, indulging the expectation of being rewarded for his labours. But the difficulties then existing between Great Britain and her colonies, induced the former to sup- press every thing that tended to give information of the power, wealth, and future prospects of this coun- try ; and Captain Carver obtained merely a reim- bursement of the sums he had actually expended on his travels, on condition of delivering up the original journals to the board of trade. He took care, how- ever, to keep a copy, which he published several years afterwards. nan wu of thi. u ■ r. l!>i (II LPTER III. Wwt of 1763— ISaco of 176 4 S ctt lementi in tr—teni Virginia — E irly land 1 1 1 1* - — V . In e of land — W.ir of 177 1 — Lewis's ex- pedition— DuMDOlVl treaty — Heroism of 1'ornstulk — Clia- ractcr of General Lewis. The yean 1*763 and 17»>1 arc memorable for the pride extent and destructive results of an atrocious war of extermination, carried on by a combination of all the Indian tribes of the western country, against the whole frontier settlements of Virginia, Pennsyl- vania, and North Carolina. The peace of 1763, by which the whole of Canada was ceded to Great Britain, was particularly unac- ceptable to the Indians, who disliked the English, and preferred the French to all other European- : and who pecially averse to this measure, because it was understood that the British claimed all the country west <>f the mountains. They recognised no distinc- tion between jurisdiction and possession, and supposed thai having gained Canada, the English would pro- le both that and the western plains, as rapidl] as might suit their own convenience. The erection erf forts, or the improvement of those which had been established, at Pittsburg, Bedford, nier, Niagara, Detroit, Presque Isle, St. Joseph, and MichUimackinac, confirmed this supposition; and th<- Indians finding themselves curbed by a strong line of forts, which threatened an extension of the 192 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. white population into the heart of their country, took up arms with alacrity, for the defence of their hunt- ing grounds, and for the prosecution of a-more decisive contest than auy in which they had been heretofore engaged. They resolved on the general massacre of all the English settlers west of the mountains, as well as those in the region of the Susquehanna, to which they laid claim. Never was a war carried on with more cunning and ferocity, and on no occasion did the Indian warriors exhibit a greater degree of military skill, and daunt- less courage, than in this war, which was especially marked by all the horrors of savage malignity — the burning of houses, the massacre of women and child- ren, and the torture of prisoners. The English traders were the first victims : of one hundred and twenty of these, scattered among the Indian tribes, only three escaped. The forts at Presque Isle, St. Joseph, and Mackinac, were surprised, and their gar- risons slaughtered, while the other posts were main- tained with great difficulty. Detroit and Fort Pitt, being the most important posts, their capture was attempted with great eager- ness, and a series of military operations occurred at these places, which we shall not repeat, as they have been related in detail in the general histories of those times. This war was concluded in the latter part of 1764, by a treaty made at the German flats, by Sir William Johnstone ; and a peace of nearly ten years continu- ance ensued, during which the settlements on the Monongahela increased with great rapidity. SKi:n BBS 09 FBI wi:st. 193 The settlements in western Virginia and Pennsyl- vania began to attract notice, along the Mononga- hela, and between thai river and the Laurel Ridge, in the year 1772, ami reached tin- Ohio in tin* succeed" ing year. The forts at Redstone, now Brownsville, and at Wheeling, were among the first and most con- spicuous. The settlers were chiefly from Maryland and Virginia; and the route they pursued was the scarcely practicable path called " Braddock's trail," which tli<'\ traveled with no better means of convey- ance for their furniture and provisions, than that afforded by pack horses. Another, but less numerous emigration, came from Pennsylvania, by way of Bedford and Fort Ligonier, to Fort Pitt, which was then supposed to be within the charter of Virginia. The great object of most of these persons was to obtain the possession of land ; the title to which cost little more than tin; payment of otiici l\-c\ other claimants, to the same land. It" none were offered within that period, the patents were issued. There was an inferior kind of title invented by those rude borderers, called a "tomahawk-right," vol. i. — 17 194 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. which was made by deadening a few trees near a spring, and marking others, by cutting in the bark the initials of the person who thus took possession. This ceremony conferred no legal property, but was respected by the settlers as establishing a priority of claim, with which it was discreditable to interfere. These rights were therefore often bought and sold, because those who wished to secure favourite tracts of land, chose to buy the tomahawk improvements, rather than quarrel with those who had made them. The settlement right at that time, was limited to four hundred acres ; and many of the primitive settlers seemed to regard this amount of the surface of the earth, as the allotment of Divine Providence for a single family, and believed that it would be sinful to monopolise a larger quantity. Most of them content- ed themselves with that number of acres, and those who evaded the law by availing themselves of the names of others, to obtain more than one settler's por- tion, were held in disrepute. It was thought that when an individual had gained as much land as was necessary to support his family, the remainder belong- ed of right to whoever might choose to settle upon it.* An authentic anecdote is related, of a worthy pio- neer in western Virginia, who, in addition to his im- provement right, became lawfully seized in fee simple, of an adjoining tract of two-hundred acres ; but being a pious and upright man, and thinking it wrong to appro- priate to himself more than he considered the lawful share of one individual, his conscience would not permit him to retain it in his family. He gave it therefore to a * Doddridge's Notes. SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 195 young man who had hcen his apprentice ; and the latter sold it for a cow and calf, and a wool hat. The division lines between those whose lands ad- joined, were amicably arranged between the parties, previous to any actual survey : and in making this partition, they were chiefly guided by the tope of the ridges, and the water-courses, but particularly the former. Hence a large Dumber of the farms in western Pennsylvania and Virginia, bear a striking re- semblance to an amphitheatre. The buildings occupy a low situation, near a spring, and the tops of the surrounding hills are the boundaries of the tract. The farmers prided themselves in an arrangement, which they alleged to be attended with the con- venience, " that every thing came to the house down hill.'' The tracts of land in Ohio having been laid out by parallel lines, the farms do not present this peculiarity. The pioneers placed little value upon their lands in consequence of an apprehension that the soil would soon " wear out," or become impoverished by culture. They were unaccustomed to the use of manure, and wholly unacquainted with the modern systems of agri- culture, by which the exhaustion of the fertilising juices of the soil is remedied ; and had they known them, would have been disinclined to the labour of such careful husbandry. This is one of the most ob- vious causes of their migratory habits. The race of pioneers inhabiting the head waters of the Ohio, had some peculiarities, which distinguish them from those of Kentucky, which we shall point out in another place. At present we shall proceed to 196 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. give a rapid outline of the historical events which at- tended the first settlement of this part of the west. The destructive war that broke out in 1774, and threw the whole frontier into consternation, was pro- voked by the misconduct of the whites. In the spring of that year, a rumour was circulated that the Indians had stolen several horses from some land speculators, who were exploring the shores of the Ohio and Kena- wa rivers. No evidence of the fact was produced, and the report has since been considered to have been false. It was, however, believed at the time, and pro- duced a general impression that the Indians were about to take up the hatchet against the frontier set- tlements. The land jobbers ascended the river and collected at Wheeling, at which place was a small station commanded by Capt. Cressap. Here a scene of confusion and high excitement en- sued. The report that a canoe containing two In- dians, was approaching, was sufficient to kindle up the incipient fires of hatred and revenge. Captain Cres- sap proposed to take a party, and intercept the In- dians ;* while Colonel Zane, the proprietor of the place, decidedly .objected to any act of hostility on the part of the whites, oh the grounds that the killing of these Indians would bring on a general war, while the act itself would -be'a criminal murder, which would disgrace the names of the perpetrators. On the frontier, the counsels of humanity and peace are not often regarded as those of wisdom. The party set out, and on being asked at their return, what had * Doddridge. um i-< ii n 01 in i p i - 1 • 197 become of Um Indians, the cool reply wis, thai M they had fallen overboard \ n The fate of the savage war- riors was oof long a secret; the canoe was found bloody, and pierced with bullets; the tribes Hew to arms, and a sanguinary war was the immediate con- Bequence of this and other acts of unprovoked outrage* On.' of these \\;i- an atrocious attack upon a part} of Indians, encamped at tin- mouth of Captina creek, committed by thirty-two meu under the command of Daniel Greathouse. <>n tin- same day, on which the murder occurred, which wo have just described, another was perpetrated at Yellow creek, by the same party. The whole family of the celebrated, hut unfortunate I. ran, were comprehended in tin- massacres, at Cap- tina and Fellow creeks; and li<- who had always be ii the friend of tin- whites, and the efficient advocate of peace, was converted by the Lawless acts of a few un- principled individuals, into an active and daring enemy. Those alone who have reside. 1 upon the frontier, are aware of ilu 1 thrill of terror, spread by such an t. among the scattered inhabitants of the border. Anticipating immediate retaliation, and not knowing at what moment, or from what quarter, the blow may come, the panic spreads with the rapidity of the wind. Bold and hardy as the borderer- are, when traversing the forest alone in pursuit of game, or when assembled for battle, they cannot, at the first rumour of an Indian war. avoid quailing under the anticipated terrors of a sudden inroad of savage hostility. They know that their enemy will steal upon them in the eight, in the unguarded hour of repose, and that the inno- 17- 198 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. cent child and helpless female will derive no protec- tion from their sex or weakness ; and they shrink at the idea of a violated fireside, and a slaughtered family. The man who may be cool, when his own life alone is exposed to danger, or whose spirit may kindle into enthusiastic gallantry, amid the animating scenes of the battle field, where armed men are his com- panions and his foes — becomes panic-struck at the con- templation of a merciless warfare which shall offer his dwelling to the firebrand of the incendiary, and his family to the tomahawk of the infuriated savage. Such was the effect of the unadvised and criminal acts which we have related. A sudden consternation pervaded the whole frontier. A war unwelcome, un- expected, and for which they were wholly unprepared, was suddenly precipitated upon them, by the unbridled passions of a few lawless men ; and a foe always quick to resent, and ever eager to shed the blood of the white race, was roused to a revenge which he would not delay in obtaining. The settlers began to remove to the interior, or collect in log forts hastily erected for the occasion. Men who had acquired homes by years of perilous and toilsome labour, who had plied the axe incessantly in clearing away the immense trees of the forest, in making fences, in building houses, in disencumbering the land of its tangled thickets, and bringing it into culture — abandoned all, and fled in precipitation to places of safety. In every path might be seen the sturdy pioneer, striding lustily forward, with his rifle on his shoulder, casting wary glances into each suspicious dell and covert ; and followed by a train of pack-horses, burthened with his SK I I < II KS OF Tin: \\ EST. 1U9 wife, his children, and such movables si could be transported by thi^ mode of conveyance. After a few days the whole scene was changed. The frontier, m lately peacefiil, had become the seat of war. The neids of the husbandman were ravaged by the Indian ; the cabins were burned, and the labours of many years desolated. The fe* 'settlers thai incautious- ly remained in their hoi laughtered, or with difficult) rescued bj their friends. The prudent men, whose backs had lately been turned upon the foe, having placed their families in security, were now seen in arms, either defending the rude fortresses, or eagerly scouring the woods in search of the enemy. However reluctantly they bad been forced into the war, they bad now entered into the spirit of the con- test ; the inconveniences they had suffered, the danger of their families, and the sight of their desolated hearths and blasted fields, had awakened in their bosoms a hatred a 4 Less implacable than that of their savage foemen. Expresses were seni to Williamsburgh, the seat of government of Virginia, announcing the commence- ment of hostilities, and a plan was immediately matur- ed, for a campaign against the Indians. The active commander was General Lewis, of Botetourte county. The forces were to rendezvous in Greenbrier county. The Earl of Dunmore Was to raise i aother army to be assembled al Fort Pitt, and thence to descend the n\er to Point Pleasant, al the mouth of the ELenawa. On the eleventh of September, General Lewis with eleven hundred men, commenced his march from his rendezvous in Green Briar for Point Pleasant, distant 2C0 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. one hundred and sixty miles. The country to be tra- versed, was at that time a trackless desert, wholly impassable for wheeled carriages ; the ammunition and provisions were carried on pack-horses ; and the army, led by a pilot acquainted with the passes of the mountains, and the Indian pathways, reached Point Pleasant after a laborious march of nineteen days. Lord Dunmore, to the great disappointment of General Lewis, did not make his appearance, and it was not until after a painful delay of nine days, that he learned by an express from that nobleman, that he had changed his plan of operations and marched for the old Chillicothe town, at which place he instruct- ed General Lewis to join him. On the next day, the Virginia troops were attacked in their camp, by a numerous body of Indians, com- posed of the Shawnee, Delaware, Mingo, and other tribes. General Lewis, keeping a strong reserve in camp, pushed forward a detachment, under Colonels Charles Lewis and Flemming, who met the Indians about four hundred yards in front of the camp, and formed in two lines for their reception. The battle commenced a little after sunrise, by a heavy firing from the Indians, and so vigorous was the onset that the advance was soon driven in upon the main body. Here they were rallied, reinforced, and led gallantly back to their former position. The Indians were now driven until they entrenched themselves behind a line of logs and trees, extending from the bank of the Ohio to that of the Kenawa, while our troops occupied the point of land formed by the junction of the two rivers. The brave Virginians thus hemmed in, with BKET4 111- OF THE w RS I . 201 rivers in their rear and on either Sank, and a vindic- tive foe strongly intrenched in their front, were de- pendanf on their courage alone for su ccee s. Their oative gallantry, abh directed l»\ the military skill of their distinguished leader, proved triumphant The battle was kept up with great vivacity, and with little change of position, during the w 1 1« »1» ■ day, ami at sun- set the inarch until he joined bis superior, when the order was repeated and obeyed* The troops were greatly chagrined at this termination of a campaign \shi« h had thus fai been so successful. The murder <>f some of their relatiyes and friends, and the 1"-- of many <>t" their brave com- panions in the recent battle, had kindled a desire for p venge, which they were disposed t<» Indulge l»\ the destruction of all tin- Indian town- m the region of the ta. The order of Dunmore was therefore obeyed with indignation and regret, and Lewis retired t o w ard s Virginia, while the carl remained with bis army to trc;it with the Indians. On this occasion every precaution was used to guard against treachery, and only a limited Dumber of chiefs, with a few warriors, were permitted to enter the forti- fied encampment* Cornstalk opened the discussions 1>\ an eloquent speech, in which he boldly charged the whites with having provoked the war, by the murders at Captina and fellow Creeks; and is said to have spoken with such vehemence, that he was heard over tii ■ a hole camp* It was on this occasion that Logan, the <'a\ chief, sent to Lord Dunmore the speech which has rendered bis name so c< lebrated, and which i- justly ridered as one of the fines! specimens ofeloqtn i record. Mr. Jefferson, who preserved this beau- tiful and affecting effusion of native feeling, in his r« in Virginia, lias been accused of palming upon the world a production of bis own, by those who have no other ground for the suspicion than the force and 204 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. feeling of the composition itself, and who forget that genuine eloquence is not the offspring of refinement. But all doubt on this subject has long since been re- moved, by the testimony of General Gibson, of Penn- sylvania, who interpreted the speech when delivered, and of other officers who were present at the treaty, and who many years afterwards remembered distinctly the impression made upon their minds by the affecting appeal of the unlettered chieftain. General Andrew Lewis, who acted so conspicuous a part in this campaign, was a gentleman of whose mili- tary abilities General Washington entertained so high an opinion, that, when the chief command of the revo- lutionary armies was tendered to himself, he recom- mended that it should rather be given to General Lewis. He was the companion of Washington in the fatal campaign under Braddock, and was a captain in the detachment that fought at Little Meadows in 1752. He commanded a company of Virginians, attached to Major Grant's regiment of highlanders, in 1758 ; and, on the eve of the battle in which the latter was so signally defeated, was ordered to the rear with his men, in order that he might not share the honour of the expected victory. There he stood with his brave Virginians, impatiently listening to the reports of the musketry, at a distance of more than a mile from the battle-ground, until the Europeans were defeated, and wholly exposed to the merciless tomahawk of the In- dians ; when, without waiting for orders, he rushed to the scene of slaughter, and, by his coolness and skill, turned the scale of victory, drove back the savages, SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 205 and saved the regulars from massacre. While ad- vancing to the reoooe, he met a Scotish Highlander under full flight ; and on enquiring of him how the battle was going, the panic-struck soldier replied, they were " a' beaten, and he had seen Donald M'Donald up to his hunkers in the mud, and a' the skin atf his heed." \<»l. i — 18 206 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. CHAPTER IV. M'Intosb's Expedition — Fort Laurens — Moravian towns — De- struction of the Moravians — Crawford's campaign. In the spring of 1778, a small body of regular troops was sent out for the protection of the western fron- tiers, under General M'Intosh, who built a fort on the site of the present town of Beaver. It was a strong stockade, with bastions, mounting one six-pounder. In the fall of that year, having received instructions to make a campaign against the Sandusky towns, he marched in that direction with a thousand men, but it was too late in the season to operate efficiently. He therefore erected Fort Laurens on the bank of the Tuscarawa, and leaving a garrison there of one hun- dred and fifty men, retired to Fort Pitt. The inexpediency of erecting forts so far in advance of the settlements, was soon experienced. In the month of January, the Indians came secretly in the night and caught the horses that were grazing near the fort. These they carried off, having first taken from their necks the bells which the new settlers hung to their domestic animals, in order to be able to find them when running at large in the woods. They then formed an ambuscade by the side of a path leading from the fort, and in the morning early rattled the bells in that direction. A fatigue party of sixteen men, who were sent out as usual to collect the horses, II I'n ii MB 01 TBI H M i- 201 fell into (In* snare. Fourteen were killed <>n the spot, and two taken* In the evening of thai day tin- whole Indian ;irm\, in full dress, and painted for war, ap- peared <>n the prairie in sight of tin- fort, marching towards it. in single file, with every martial solemnity which could render their appearance imposing. Their number, as counted from one of the bastions, was eight hundred and forty-seven. They encamped on a rising ground on the opposite side of the riser from the fort, and often approached so near as to hold con- Mn .n- with our peopli — in which they deplored the war, DUt did not attempt to conceal their feelings of exasperation at the Americans for penetrating so far into their country. After besieging the fort for about six weeks, they retired; and the commander despatched Colonel Clark to Fort M'Intosh, with the invalids, under a -mall escort The Indians, antici- pating that the garrison would be thrown off its guard by their retreat, had left a party lingering behind, which intercepted this little detachment, about two mile- from the fort, and killed all but four. A few days after this disaster, General M'Intosh came to the relief of the garrison, with a body of seven hundred men and a supply of provisions, of which the lately besieged part) stood in great need, but the greater part of which was Lost by an uncom- mon accident. When the relieving troops were about to -liter the tort, the overjoyed garrison saluted them by a genera] discharge of musketry, at the report of which the pack-horses, taking fright, broke away sud- denly from their drivers, and dashed off through the -t at full speed — scattering the provisions in every 208 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. direction, so that a large proportion of them could never be recovered. To understand fully the extent of this misfortune, it should be stated that the garrison had been, for two weeks, on short allowance of sour flour and damaged meat — even this wretched resource was exhausted ; and, for several days previous to the arrival of the relief, they had subsisted on raw hides, and such roots as could be found in the woods and prai- ries. Several men had suffered death, in consequence of eating poisonous herbs. Such were some of the incidents of border warfare, and the hardships of the brave pioneers who led the van of civilisation into our beautiful valley ! About the year 1772, some missionaries, of the order of Moravian brethren, succeeded in establish- ing a community of Indians, who embraced their faith, and who were collected into three villages, on the Muskingum, called Salem, Gnaden-huetten, and Schoenbrund. What progress they made in imparting to their converts the arts of civilisation, and the prin- ciples of Christianity, cannot now be satisfactorily as- certained. It is only certain that they induced them to live in peace, and to engage in the cultivation of the soil, and that they prospered so far as to increase their numbers to four hundred people. The times, however, were adverse to a fair trial of their experi- ment, and their location was not less unpropitious. Occupying a position midway between the advanced settlements of the whites, and the villages of some of the hostile Indians, and practising a pacific de- meanour which both parties alike despised, they were ■KETCHES Ol I II i: W l- I'. 2W s usp e c ted by each alternately of secretly fav« oring the other. They cootinoed howefef to be treated with some degree of respect, until the breaking out of the re- volution in 1775, when their situation became in the highest degree embarrassing. Marly in this contest, the British government enlisted under her banners the tomahawk of the Indian, and the whole western fron- tier became ■ scene of sanguinary warfare. The Ameri ca n colonies, barely able to sustain their Beets and armies on the sea board, had neither troops nor supplies to send to the frontier. The pioneers defend- ed themselves against the combined forces of the British and Indians, appointed their own officers, eted forts, and bore, unaided, the whole weight of the revolutionary contest V- they were not assisted, bo they were not con- trolled by the government, and became ■ law unto thems !\ b; carrying on a desultory warfare, without plan, and without restraint. A lawless disposition ,. up, which led to the perpetration of many acte\ that would not have Keen approved under any system of -"i;d subordination, or military law. The warfare between them and the Indians soon as- Bumed a vindictive and merciless character j a hatred, deep, stern, and mutual, governed the contest, and the parties fought not to eon. pier, but to exterminate. The warriors of either side, in passing the neutral villages of the Moravians, situated midway beta them, often found it convenient to Stop, and it was no . matter t<>r thai pacific community to preserve its neutrality. To avoid the suspicions of partiality IV 210 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. was impossible. Even their aversion to the shedding of blood, led them into acts which however humane, were incautious. On some occasions, they sent secret messages to the whites, to apprise them of plans, laid by the savages, to surprise a fort, or massacre a settle- ment ; and they received the famished prisoners who escaped from the Indians, secreted and fed them, and enabled them to elude the pursuit of their enemies. On the other hand, the red warriors found a resting place in either of the Moravian villages, whenever they claimed its hospitality, and perhaps experienced all the offices of charity and friendship which were extended to our people. It followed as a matter of course, that whenever a secret plan of one party was discovered and frustrated by the other, the Moravians were supposed to be the treacherous betrayers ; and the failure of an expedi- tion brought upon them the heavy imprecations of the side which had met with discomfiture. All the kind- ness which had been received from them was blotted out by their alleged treason, or the partiality that jealous warriors suspected them to entertain towards their foes. The Moravian villages were called " The half way houses of the warriors ;" and this phrase began to be used in fierce derision, by the stern and lawless men, who despised the peaceable tillers of the soil, who took neither side, but opened their doors alike to all comers. In 1781, the war chief of the Delawares apprised the missionaries of their danger, and urged them to remove, but they declined. In the fall of the same year, a party of three hundred Indians destroy- U in ii || Of j in w i - 1 . 211 cd the villages, desolated the fields, and turned the unhappy converti to Christianity, into the wikforni upon the plains of Sandusky, where many of them perished of (amine during the ensuing winter. The missionariea were carried to Detroit, and alter 1»< m» ■trictly examined, wen- permitted by the British go- vernint'iii to return totheii peoplet In the ensuing month of February, onehundredand fifh of th" Moravian Indians returned t<> their ruined villages, to seek among the desolated hearth* some remnants of their once plentiful §1 >res of food, for their perishing families. Here they encountered ■ hody of militia from the settlements, by whom ninety of these unonending creatures were wantonly slam. A wretched remnant returned to their starving companions at Sandusky, afibrding a melancholy evi- dence of the little estimation in which the virtues of peace are held, during the stern excitement of a hor- der war. The celebrated campaign under Colonel Crawford, was undertaken in 1782, for the double purpose of Completing the destruction of the ."Moravian Indians. in their new town at Sandusky, and of destroying the Wyandot towns CO that river. The force employed HMMifltnd of 180 men, all of whom were volunteers, who were chiefly raised in the immediate vicinity of the Ohio. We -hall not re p eal the details of this campaign, which seem to have been badly planned, and not well conducted. An act of insubordination on the part of the men, upon first meeting with a few of the enemy, 212 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. induced Colonel Crawford to indulge in melancholy forebodings, which were but too fatally realised. On the plains of Sandusky they were met by an Indian army, and a severe engagement ensued, which lasted from noon until sunset. On the next day, the number of Indians increased, and the encampment was surrounded by a numerous host of savages. A retreat was resolved upon ; but even this measure was almost impracticable, for the way was blocked up by enemies, who disputed every step, and threw every obstacle in the path of our dis- comfited countrymen. The army became panic-struck, and all its measures seem to have been the result of mere impulse. A difference of opinion arose, as to the best mode of retreating : the greater number con- sidering it advisable to retire in a compact body, while a considerable number thought it safer to break up into small parties, which should strike homeward in different directions. Unfortunately both plans were attempted, but neither of them prosecuted with energy ; and while the majority determined to preserve the force entire, small parties were continually detachino- themselves, which fell into the hands of the enemy, who quick-sighted in discovering the insubordinate and distracted state of our army, adapted their war- fare to the occasion, and hovered about to cut off those who left the main body. Colonel Crawford himself, missing his son, son-in- law, and two nephews, who were supposed to have fallen in the rear, lingered behind the troops to seek them, and was taken prisoner. He was conducted, with several other captives, to an Indian town, where 9KBTCHK8 01 I n I ■ I I I 811 bewm beaten, tortured, and finally burnt at the stake, with ever) indignity and ev< ration of suffer- ing that savage malignity could invent. The infamet Sim. m Girty, an agent of the British government, witnessed these at roe it i«-< ; ami 1 1« • t only refused to intercede for the brave but unfortunate Crawford, but laughed heartily at the ag t" the perishing captive. Thii irai the last campaign, in this quarter, during the revolutionary war; it u;i> irretchedly planned and worse conducted; and on no occasion * 1 i « 1 the Bavs obtain mora ample revenge, or gratify their hatred to Mm whites with more brutaj^ferocity. But Crawford mjg the last white man known to have Buffered at the stak We have passed over several minor expeditions, and a variety of individual adventures, which occurred, at^ the period under review, in this interesting region. But we cannot omit an incident which Strongly marks the character of the times, and shows at how early an age the young pioneers imbibed those traits of cun- ning, of patient endurance, and of self-possession, which distinguished our hardy borderers. In the year 17!>3. two brothers, John and Henry Johnson — the one thirteen, and the other eleven years of age — w ho s e parents lived in Carpenter's station, near Short Creek, on the west side of the Ohio, were roaming through the woods in search of their father's cattle. They were met and captured by two Indians, both of whom, as it turned oat ■Aerwards, were dis- tinguished warriors* The Indians had bridles in their hands, and were 214 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. seeking the horses of the settlers, for the purpose of stealing ; and they continued their ramble, taking the boys with them. John, the oldest, had the tact to ac- commodate himself at once to his situation ; and, af- fecting great joy at being captured, informed the savages that his father had treated him cruelly, and that he had long meditated an escape to the Indian country. He said that he wished to live in the woods and be a hunter, and seemed to enter with spirit into the search of the Indians after the horses of the white men. This conduct conciliated the favour of the sa- vages, who treated them kindly. They were careful, however, not to trust thejr little prisoners too far, but pinioned their arms ; and at night, when they laid down, placed the boys between them, secured by a large strap which was passed under their own bodies. " Pretty late in the night," says the narrator of this incident,* " the Indians fell asleep ; and one of them, becoming cold, caught hold of John in his arms, and turned him over on the outside. In this situation the boy, who had kept awake, found means to get his hands loose ; he then whispered to his brother, made him get up, and untied his arms. This done, Henry thought of nothing but running off, as fast as possible ; but, when about to start, John caught hold of him, saying, " we must kill these Indians before we go." After some hesitation, Henry agreed to make the at- tempt. John took one of the rifles of the Indians, and placed it on a log with the muzzle close to the head of one of them. He then cocked the gun, and placed his little brother at the breech with his finger * Dr. Doddridge. ski r< in- of the w i - r. 216 on the trigger, with instructiooa t<» pull it, as 1000 a- he should strike the other [ndian. •• 11, • thru look one of the [adieus' tomahawks, and standing a-straddle of the other Indian, Btruck him with it. The blow, however, fell on the back of the neck and t n- side, BO Bfl QOt to be fatal. The Indian then attempted to spring op, but the little fellow re- peated lu> blows with such force and rapidity on the skull, that, a< he expressed it, 'the Indian laid still and began to quiver. 1 • Vt tli<' moment of the first stroke given by the elder brother, the younger one pulled the trigger, and shot away s considerable portion of the Indians lower jaw. This Indian, a moment after receiving the shot, n to Bounce about and yell in the most fright- fal manner* The hoy- then made the be-t pf their wav to the fort, and reached it a little before day- break. On getting near the fort, thej found the peo- ple all up, and in great agitation on their account. On hearing a woman exclaim "poor little fellow.-. they arc lulled, or taken prisoners," the eldest one answered, u no mother I we are here yet." Havin^ brought away QOthing from the Indian camp, their relation was not credited; but a party having been conducted by the soys -to the -pot, one Indian was found killed, and the other desperately wounded. At the treaty held subsequently by Genera] Wayne, a friend of the Indian- who bad been killed, enquired what had become of these boys, and (»n being answer • ed, that tluv lived in the same place, with their parents, the [ndian exclaimed, M V«>n have not done right, you should make kings of those b«.\-." 216 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. CHAPTER V. Manners of the early settlers in western Virginia — Mode of emigration — Habits of living — Hunting — Weddings — Religion. These historical facts should be kept in mind by those who are curious in their researches, in reference to the springs of national character. The strong pe- culiarities, and prominent points of western character, are most properly sought among those who came first, who have lived longest under the influences of a new country, and who have been least affected by the sub- sequent influx of emigrants from the sea board ; they are found best developed in western Pennsylvania, western Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee — and in the more western settlements which have been formed chiefly from these states : they are least observable where the population is most mixed, and are scarcely perceptible in our large commercial towns and cities. We shall add here a few illustrations of the cha- racter and habits of the early settlers, selected from the work of Dr. Doddridge, to which we have already more than once referred. The book before us, is the production of a reverend gentleman, who was reared in the wilderness, and was intimately acquainted with the whole subject on which he writes. His father came to western Vir- ginia in 1773, during the deceptive calm which pre- ceded the rupture of 1774, usually called Dunmore's SKI i ■< B i - 0» in I w i - i . l.'17 war. Brought up in the wilderness, the inmate of a cabin, Dr. Doddridge spent bis whole life in tlw midst <>f those dangers and vicissitudes which make up the life of the borderer, and has detailed a variety of mi- nute circumstances, which render bis book exceedingly valuable. The auth<»r adterts, in an introductory chapter, to the feelings with which, at the age of fifty, be books back upon a Ij ised wholly amid the scenes of the wild ibracing changes so rapid and onderral, as almost to exceed belief. Hisearliest reooUections are of the log cabin, the fort, the bound- wUdernesS, and perils of the chase. His infant slumbers were disturbed By the yell of the Indian, and the scene of Ids Bports was a forest in which danger lay ambushed under so many shapes, that even the child grew cunning in eluding, and self-possessed in meeting it. The exploits of the chase and of the border warfare formed the familiar gossip of the fire- side. Then followed the raj. id expansion of the settle- ment-, and the introduction of civil institutions — the ingress of inhabitants, the establishment of counties, the building up of Tillages, the erection of court- houses and places of worship, until at last, extensive farms valuable manufactories, commercial marts, and richly freighted vessi Is, occupied the places, which in the memory of the writer, bad been solitary places and - f earn; 9 me ot* these reminiscences are amusing enough, tnerd matter of serious reflection, when we re- collect that the privations described were those of VOL. I 19 218 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. thousands of the gallant men to whom we are indebt- ed for the conquest of the country. He says, " some of the early settlers took the precaution to come over the mountains in the spring, leaving their families behind to raise a crop of corn, and then return and bring them out in the fall. This I should think was the better way. Others, especially those whose families were small, brought them with them in the spring. My father took the latter course. His family was but small, and he brought them all with him. The Indian meal which he brought over the mountains, was expended six weeks too soon, so that for that length of time we had to live without bread. The lean venison, and the breast of wild tur- keys, we were taught to call bread. The flesh of the bear was denominated meat. This artifice did not succeed very well ; after living in this way for some time, we became sickly ; the stomach seemed to be always empty, and tormented with a sense of hunger. I remember how narrowly the children watched the growth of the potato tops, pumpkin and squash vines, hoping from day to day to get something to answer in the place of bread. How delicious was the taste of the young potatoes when we got them ! What a jubilee when we were permitted to pull the young corn for roasting ears ! Still more so, when it had acquired sufficient hardness to be made into johnny cakes, by the aid of a tin grater. We then became healthy, vigorous, and contented with our situation, poor as it was." — p. 100. " The furniture of the table, for several years after the settlement of this country, consisted of a few SKETCHES OF THE Wr.ST. '^19 pen ter dishes, plates, and t| 1-, but mostly of wooden bowls, trenchers, and noggins. IT these last were scarce, gourds and hard shelled squashes made up t h«- deficiency* The iron pots, knives and fork-, were brought from the east side of the mountains, along with salt and ir<»n. on pack-horses*" — p. 109. "I well recoiled the first time I ever -aw a tea- cup and saucer, and tasted co flbo . My mother died when 1 was about >i\ or seven yean of age* My father then sent me to Maryland, with a brother of my grandfather, Mr* Alexander Wells, to n<-> to school*' 1 "At Col* Brown's in the mountain-, at Stony creek glades, I lor the first time saw tame geese, and by bantering a pet gander, I got a severe biting by His bill, and beating by his wings. I wondered very much that birds so Large and strong, Bhould be so much tamer than the wild turkeys : at this place, however, all was right, excepting the large birds which they called creese. The cabin and furniture was such SS I bad bein accustomed' to see in the backwoods, as my country was then called. • \t Bedford, every thing was changed* The tavern at which my uncle put up, was a stone house, and to make the changes -till more complete, it was plastered in the inside, both as to the walls and ceil- ing. On going into the dining room, I was struck with astonishment at the appearance of the house. I hail no idea that there was any house in the world that was not built of logs ; but here I looked round and could see no logs, and above I could see no joists; whether such a thing bad been made by the hands of 220 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. man, or had grown so of itself, I could not conjecture. I had not the courage to enquire any thing about it. When supper came on, my confusion was " worse con- founded." A little cup stood in a bigger one, with some brownish looking stuff in it, which was neither milk, homminy, nor broth ; what to do with these little cups, and the little spoons belonging to them, I could not tell ; but I was afraid to ask any thing concerning the use of them. " It was in the time of the war, and the company were giving accounts of catching, whipping, and hang- ing tories. The word jaii frequently occurred; this word I had never heard before ; but I soon discovered, and was much terrified at, its meaning, and supposed that we were in danger of the fate of the tories ; for I thought as we had come from the backwoods, it was altogether likely that we must be tories too. For fear of being discovered, I durst not utter a single word. I therefore watched attentively to see what the big folks would do with their little cups and spoons. I imitated them, and found the taste of the coffee nause- ous beyond any thing I ever had tasted in my life. I continued to drink as the rest of the company did, with tears streaming from my eyes ; but when it was to end, I was at a loss to know, as the little cups were filled immediately after being emptied. This cir- cumstance distressed me very much, as I durst not say I had enough. Looking attentively at the grown persons, I saw one man turn his cup bottom upwards, and put his little spoon across it. I observed that after this his cup was not filled again ; I followed his BKSTOB M 01 i in: VH i- 22 1 example, and to mv great satisfaction, the result m n my cup was thf same.' 1 There i> something in this anecdote very charac- teristic of ilif bac k woods boy. All %\ 1 » « > bate studied thf habits of the people of the frontier, <»r indeed of anv rude people, who are continually exposed t«» dan- ger, bave observed the wariness of the children, their independence, and their patience under Buffering. Like the young partridge, thai from the moment of its birth practisea the arts oscesearj to ita own safety, the child of the woods is self-dependent from early in- fancy. Such was the case in the scene so artlessly described by our author, where a child of six or seven years old, drank a nauseous beverage, for fear of giving ofience, and instead of appealing to his relative tor protection, observed and watched for himself, until he found out the means of relief by his own sagacity. An Indian l»>y would have done the same. The following anecdote will be new to some of our readers : k ' A neighbour of mv father, some years after the settlement of the country, had collected a small drove of cattle for the Baltimore market. Amongst the hands employed to drive them, was one who had never seen any condition of society but that of the woodsmen. \t one of their lodging places in the mountain, the landlord and his hired man, in the course of the night, stole two of the bells belonging to the drove, and hid them in a piece of wood-. " The drove had not gone far in the morning before the bens were missed, and ■ detachment went back to recover them. The men were found reaping the field of the landlord. They were accused of the theft, but 19* 222 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. they denied the charge. The torture of sweating, according to the custom of that time, that is, of sus- pension by the arms, pinioned behind the backs, brought a confession. The belis were procured and hung round the necks of the thieves. In this condi- tion they were driven on foot before the detachment until they overtook the drove, which by this time had gone nine miles. A halt was called, and a jury selected to try the culprits. They were condemned to receive a certain number of lashes on the bare back, from the hand of each drover. The man above alluded to was the owner of one of the bells ; when it came to his turn to use the hickory, " now," says he to the thief, " you infernal scoundrel, I'll work your jacket nineteen to the dozen — only think what a ras- cally figure I should make in the streets of Baltimore, without a bell on my horse !" The man was in earnest ; in a country where horses and cattle are pastured in the range, bells are neces- sary to enable the owners to find them ; to the traveller who encamps in the wilderness, they are indispen- sable, and the individual described had probably never been placed in a situation in which they were not re- quisite. Hunting was an important part of the employment of the early settlers. For some years after their emi- gration, the forest supplied them with a greater part of their subsistence ; some families were without bread for months at a time, and it often happened that the first meal of the day could not be prepared until the hunter returned with the spoils of the chase. Fur and peltry were the circulating medium of the 8kk i< m "i rn ■ \ - 1 . country ; Um bunler had nothi change f<>r i . and iron. Hunting, th , was the employment, rather than I fthe pioneers — yet it was pursued with the alacrity sense of enjoyment which attends an exciting ami irite amusement. Dangerous and fatiguio it- \ i « - i — i 1 1 1 . cha i life ti, - for the rifle. ["he cla<^ of hunters with whom I wa< best ac- quainted,' 1 says our author, "were th — whose bant- ing rang on the western >i soon as the leaves were pretty well down, and the became rainy , accompanied with liLiht snows, . after acting the part of husbandmen IS the Bt . f warfare ; 1 them to do, •1 that ; un- . at home. Ev< n thins about them became dis- agreeable. The house was too warm, I her bed too soft, and even the good wife was not thought, for the tin* companion. The mind of the hunter was wholly occupied with the camp and cha •■I hat :n get up early in the in at th i, walk hastily out and look anxiously to the . and snuff the autumnal winds with the highest rapture, then return into the house and cast a quick and attentive look at the ride, which was always ponded ti» a i<>i-t bj ile of buck borns,oi wood- en forks. The hunting dog, understanding the in- tentions of his master, would wag bis tail, and bv 224 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. every blandishment in his power, express his readi- ness to accompany him to the woods." — p. 124. A hunt usually occupied several days, and often ex- tended to weeks ; the hunter living in a camp, hidden in some secluded place, to which he retired every night, and where he kept his store of ammunition, and other plunder. There were individuals who remained for months together in the woods, and spent the greater part of their lives in these camps, which are thus described : " A hunting camp, or what was called a half-faced cabin, was of the following form : the back part of it was sometimes a large log ; at the distance of eight or ten feet from this, two stakes were set in the ground a few inches apart, and at the distance of eight or ten feet from these, two more, to receive the ends of poles for the sides of the camp. The whole slope of the roof was from the front to the back. The covering was made of slabs, skins, or blankets, or if in the spring of the year, the bark of the hickory or ash tree. The front was left entirely open. The fire was built directly before this opening. The cracks between the poles were filled with moss. Dry leaves served for a bed. It is thus that a couple of men, in a few hours, will construct for themselves a temporary, but tolerably comfortable defence against the inclemencies of the weather. " The site for the camp was selected with all the sagacity of the woodsmen, so as to have it sheltered by the surrounding hills from every wind, but more especially from those of the north and south." The author might have added, that these shelters were so ■urrcHBB oi 1 1 1 1 w i - 1 . artfullv oeaceeled, as t'> be seldom dineorered < 10 pt by accident He continues i •• \u uncle of mane, of the name of Samuel Tel occapied the same camp foi in sua Hon. It w.i- <•!" ill* 1 southern In of Cfoas creak. Uthough 1 lived many years not than fifteen miles Gram the place* if was n<>t till within n rerj few yean sgo, thai I discow. situation. It was shown me l>> a gentleman bring in the neighbourhood. Viewing the hills round abani it. ! .11 discovered the sagacity of the buntef in the site of In- Camp. N«»t ■ wind COIlId touch him: and umkai by the report of bis gun oi the sound of hie ;iv . it would bare been mere accidenf it* an Indian Bred bis conceaJmeat. M H u 1 1 1 i 1 1 - wai oof ;t mere ramble in pureaif of game, in which there wae nethiiu: uH and calculation; on the contrary, the hunter, before be eel euf in the morning, was informed by the state of the weather in what situation be aught reasonably expect to meat with hie name: whether on the bottoms, oi on the aides or tops of the hills. In storm} weather, the : ;il\\a\ - Uered places, and the rard Sides of bills. En rainy weather, when there is oof much wind, the\ keep in the ..pen wood-, on the highest ground. 14 In everj situation it was requisite for the hunter to ascertain the course of the wind, so as to gat to leea aid of the game. • v- it was requisite toe tor the hunter to know the iinal point-, 1p had oiil\ to observe the tie. a to rtain them. Tic barb of an aged tree is thicker 226 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. and much rougher on the north than on the south side. The same thing may be said of the moss. " The whole business of the hunter consists in a series of stratagems. From morning till night he was on the alert to gain the wind of his game, and approach them without being discovered. If he suc- ceeded in killing a deer, he skinned it, and hung it up out of the reach of the wolves, and immediately re- sumed the chase till the close of the evening, when he bent his course towards his camp ; when he arrived there he kindled up his fire, and together with his fellow-hunter, cooked his supper. The supper finish- ed, the adventures of the day furnished the tales for the evening. The spike buck, the two and three pronged buck, the doe, and barren doe, figure through their anecdotes. After hunting awhile on the same ground, the hunters became acquainted with nearly all the gangs of deer within their range, so as to know each flock when they saw them. Often some old buck, by means of his superior sagacity and watchfulness, saved his little gang from the hunter's skill, by giving timely notice of his approach. The cunning of the hunter, and of the old buck, were staked against each other, and it frequently happened that at the conclusion of the hunting season, the old fellow was left the free uninjured tenant of his forest ; but if his rival succeeded in bringing him down, the victory was followed by no small amount of boasting. " Many of the hunters rested from their labours on the sabbath day ; some from a motive of piety ; others said that whenever they hunted on Sunday they were sure to have bad luck for the remainder of the week." >ki i ■< ii M Of in I w i M l • 221 Amwig other graphic sketches, the reverend his> torian gives 1 1 1 * * following account of ■ wedding in the olden times* •• In the morning of the wedding day, the groom ami lu^ attendants aaaembled nt the house of his lather, for the purpose of reaching the mansion of Ins bride l»\ noon, j Inch was the usual time for celebrating the nuptials j whn h for certain mu>t take place before dinner. M Lei the reader imagine an assemblage of people, without a store, tailor, or mantuamaker, within a hun- dred miles, and an assemblage of horses, without a blacksmith, or saddler within an equal distance. The gentlemen dressed in shoepacks, mocassins, leather breeches, leggins, and Linsey bunting-shirts, all home- made ; the ladies in linsej petticoats, and linse] sf linen Bhort-gowns, coarse shoes and stockings, bander- Chiefs, and buckskin gloves, if any. If there were an\ buckles, rines, buttons, or ruffles, thej were relics of old times — family pieces from parents or grandparents. The horses were caparisoned with old saddles, old bridles or baiters, and pack-addles, with a hair or blanket thrown over them; a rope or string as often constituted the girth ;is a piece of leather. "The inarch in double file was often interrupted by the narrowness and obstructions of our horse-paths, as they were called. f..r we had no roads; and these diffi- culties were often increased, sometimes by the good, sometimes by the ill-will of neighbours, 1»\ falling - and tying grape-vines aero-- the way. Some- times an ambus is formed by the v.a\ side, and an unexpected discharge of several guns took place, so 228 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. as to cover the wedding company with smoke. Let the reader imagine the scene which followed ; the sud- den spring of the horses, the shrieks of the girls, and the chivalric bustle of their partners to save them from falling. Sometimes, in spite of all that could be done to prevent it, some were thrown to the ground. If a wrist, an elbow, or an ancle, happened to be sprained, it was tied with a handkerchief, and little more said or thought about it." The author describes minutely the dinner, which was " a substantial backwoods feast of beef, pork, fowls, venison, and bear meat, roasted and boiled, with plenty of potatoes, cabbage, and other vegetables," — and the dancing, which consisted of " three and four- handed reels, square sets, and jigs," and which " gene- rally lasted 'till the next morning." We leave out many amusing and curious descrip- tions, relating to the customs of this primitive people, to make room for the following remarks, which, coming from the pen of an aged and respectable Chris- tian minister, are worthy of an attentive perusal. In a chapter on " civilisation," the author remarks the happy change in the moral and physical condition of the people among whom he has spent his life, points out many of the causes, and then proceeds as follows : " The ministry of the gospel has contributed, no doubt immensely, to the happy change which has been effected in the state of our western society. At an early period of our settlements, three presbyterian clergymen commenced their clerical labours : the Rev. Joseph Smith, the Rev. John M'Miilan, and the Rev. Mr. Bowers ; the two latter of whom are still livino-. SKET< 111 - - 1 HIE WKST. Thej were pious, patient, laborious men, who coll< their people into regular congregations, and did all for thrui thai their circumstances would allow. It no disparagement to them, that their first chun the shad] . and their first pulpits a kind of tenl constructed of a few rough Blabs, and covered with clapboards* Be who dwelleth not, exclusively, in temples made with hand-, was propitious to their itions. " Prom the outset, they prudently resolved to en a ministry in tin country, and accordingly established little grammar schools at their own houses, or in their immediate neighbourhoods. The course of education whit h they gave their pupils was. indeed, net extru- sive : hut the piety of those that entered into the ministry, more than made up the deficiency. They formed societies, most of which are now large and re- spectable; and, in point of education, their mini-try much improved." This i- taken from a book published in 1824, and of course was not written with any view to the questions which have subsequently been vexed — but what a se- rebuke does it convey, to those who are continu- ally railing against the ignorance and irreligion of the . and are inviting colonies from land- supposed to ho more highly enlightened in reference to religion. The venerable pioneers of religion did not discover any sterility in the intellect of the west, which ren- dered instruction less efficacious here than elsewhere, and "they prudentl) resolved to create a ministry in the country." In-trad of inviting men from ahroad, they established " grammar schools at their own vol. i — 20 230 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. houses," and prepared the sons of their neighbours for the pulpit and the bar. This is the true theory, and the only one under which any country can nourish. " About the year 1792, an academy was established at Cannonsburgh, in Washington county, in the west- ern part of Pennsylvania, which was afterwards incor- porated under the name of Jefferson college. " The means possessed by the society for the under- taking, were indeed but small ; but they not only erected a tolerable edifice for the academy, but created a fund for the education of such pious young men as were desirous of entering into the ministry, but unable to defray the expenses of their education. " This institution has been remarkably successful in its operations. It has produced a largo number of good scholars in all the literary professions, and added immensely to the science of the country. " Next to this, Washington college, situated in the county town of the county of that name, has been the means of diffusing much of the light of science through the western country. " Too much praise cannot be bestowed on those good men, who opened these fruitful sources of instruction for our infant country, at so early a period of its set- tlement. They have immensely improved the depart- ments of theology, law, medicine, and legislation, in the western regions. " At a later period, the methodist society began their labours in the western parts of Virginia and Pennsyl- vania ; their progress at first was slow, but their zeal and perseverance at length overcame every obstacle, so that they are now one of the most numerous and NOBTCHXfl 01 i B I P I I i i 231 respectable societies in this country. The itinerant plan of their mini-try is will calculated t»> convey the gospel throughout a think scattered population. Ac- cordingry, their ministr} has kept pace with the exten- sion of our settlements. The little cabin was scarcer) built, and the little field fenced in, before these evan- gelical teachers made their appearance among the inhabitants, collected them in; ties, and taught them the worship of ( rod. M Had it not been tor the labours of these indefati- gable men, our country, as to s great extent of its settlements, would have been, at this day, a si mi-bar- barous region* How many thousands, and tent thousands, of the most ignorant and licentious of our population, have they instructed and reclaimed from the error of their ways I They have restored to society even the most worthless, and made them valu- able and respectable as citizens, and useful in all the relations of life. Their numerous and zealous minist r> bids fair to carry on the good work to any extent which our settlements and population may require. "With the catholics I have but little acquaintance, but have every reason to believe, that, in proportion to the extent of their Hocks, they have done well. In this country, they have received the episcopal visita- tions of their bishops. In Kentucky, they ha\ cathedral, a college, and a lu>hop. "Their clergy, with apostolic zeal, but in an unos- tentatious manner, have sought out and ministered to their scattered flocks throughout the countr] : and, BJ far as I know, with good success. •• The societies of friends in the western country are 232 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. numerous, and their establishments in good order. Although not much in favour of a classical education, they are nevertheless in the habit of giving their peo- ple a substantial English education. Their habits of industry, and attention to the useful arts and improve- ments, are highly honourable to themselves, and worthy of imitation. " The baptists, in the state of Kentucky, took the lead in the ministry, and with great success. Their establishments are, as I am informed, at present, numerous and respectable. " The German Lutheran and reformed churches in our country, as far as I know, are doing well. The number of Lutheran congregations is said to be at least one hundred ; that of the reformed, it is presumed, is about the same amount." He remarks, that the Germans have the best churches, organs, and grave-yards ; and adds — "It is a fortunate circumstance that those of our citizens, who labour under the disadvantage of speaking a fo- reign language, are blessed with a ministry so evan- gelical as that of these very numerous and respectable societies." It is refreshing to read this simple, and clear, yet impartial exposition of the labours of Christians of different sects, and to know that they have respectively done their duty — refreshing to learn that a numerous and zealous ministry were industriously employed in laying the foundations of education and religion, while many of those were yet unborn, who now are most fluent in describing the ignorance, destitution, and moral depravity, of our country. PART III. BVENTt in Till. i:\IM. \ IN>TORY OF KENTUCKY. CHAPTER I. Early discoveries in Kentucky — Its occupation by Indians — An- ecdote of two of the pioneers — John Finley's visit — Those of M'Bridc, Dr. Walker, Boone, and others. It is a curious tact, that the first explorers of this region found n<> Indians settled upon the shores of the Ohio. Throughout the whole Length of this beautiful river, not a single vestige of an Indian town is to be found. The aboriginal tribes, who are always at war, seem to have had regard chiefly to that Btate, in choos- ing the sites of their villages. For savages, situated ;i- they were, the most commanding positions were those lying near the sources of large rivers, from which they could descend in their canoes to attack an enemv below them, while their own villages would be approached with difficulty by canoe> attempting to as- cend against the stream. Where the head waters of two rivers approached and flowed away in different directions, affording increased facilities for sending oil' hunting expeditions and war parties, a spot in contact •jir 234 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. with both streams possessed unusual advantages, and such places were generally occupied. But it will be seen, that, for the same reasons, the shores of a large river like the Ohio, into which numerous tributaries of great size and length poured their waters, would be exposed, above all others, to the attacks of savage warfare, as they would be easily accessible from a variety of directions. It is not known that any tribe was ever settled per- manently in Kentucky ; no ownership was exercised over that region, when first visited by the whites ; and no exclusive title was vested in any nation of Indians, though several claims were set up, the most important of which were those of the Cherokees and of the Six Nations. It was a common hunting-ground for many tribes, who visited it from a great distance — roaming over its rich pastures during the season for taking game, and making it their temporary residence during a part of every year, for that purpose. It was also the great battle-ground of the Indians, who met here in desperate conflict — either accidentally, when en- gaged in hunting, or by concert, in the mutual pursu- ance of a policy which induced them to carry their wars as far as .possible from home. The name applied to it by the savages — the dark and bloody ground — is terribly significant of the sanguinary character of those conflicts, which rendered this region celebrated in the traditionary legends of that ferocious race. Whether any superstition invested the scenes of so many battles with a peculiar awe, and rendered the savage reluctant to reside here, where he might sup- pose the spirits of the fallen to be wandering, we have i n 1 1 1 in- 01 i in w writ not tlio means of knowing; we are only informed of the fact, that a tract of country the moat luxuriant, the saost abundant in game, and the moat prolific in all the fruits, anf nature, which yield food, or other neceeaaries of Life, to the wander- inir tribes, was an uninhabited wilderness* Although the pioneers found the country unoccupied by a r es i d en t population, and might properly have taken possession, without violating anj law of nations, <>r moral principle; yet it was precisely in that condition which rendered anj attempt to settle the land particu- larly dangerous. These boundless forests swarm ed with parties of hostile savages, who resided too tar from the settlements of the whites to fear their power, or to feel any wish to conciliate their friendship. Their own villages and families were, as they sup- posed, too distant to be exposed to the danger of retaliation. They were abroad, unincumbered with property or dependents, and prepared for war : no delay was suggested by prudence, nor auv time re- quired for c tnsultation. A hated race had intruded into the hunting-grounds, for the possession of which they had long disputed among themselves, and with one accord the arms oi all w< re turned against the invaders. The pioneers were few, — they acted on their own responsibility, with the countenance merely, but not the aid, of the government. In the whole history of the settlement of Kentucky, comprising a period of twenty years, neither men nor munitions were sent to these infant settlements. It was not until the Indians had been repeatedly beaten, and the power of our coun- 236 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. trymen was completely established in Kentucky, that the government began to send troops to the west ; and the names of Wilkinson, Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne, are found in the annals of border warfare. And these officers acted chiefly on the western shores of the Ohio. Yet the pioneers were almost always successful in their battles, and the progress of the set- tlements was never stopped. They continued to in- crease steadily in numbers, and to spread gradually over the land. Although the warfare of the Indians was of the most unsparing character — accompanied with all the atrocities of the tomahawk, the firebrand, and the stake, the courage of the pioneers was never damped, and their conduct was equal to every emer- gency. Without detracting in the least from their merits, it may be inferred, from some of the facts above stated, that the war against them was never conducted with much skill or concert. Both parties were far from any place which could afford supply or relief, and neither possessed the requisite facilities for any long-sustained effort. The one party usually sur- prised the other, and the conflict was brief, sanguinary, and, for the time, decisive. We have alluded, in our introductory chapter, to the character of the pioneers, and the mode of the earliest emigration to Kentucky. We shall now ex- tend these remarks as far only as is necessary to an understanding of the peculiar habitudes of that re- markably original race, and to the elucidation of their early history. About the year 1749, a citizen of Frederick county, in Virginia, who was subject to occasional fits of insa- BKST4 ii U 01 i ii I S n I • nitv. roamed off into the woods, :i- fM usually bil practice! Bnder Buch circumstances. Having rambled farther towards ill-' west than was then customary with the hunters, he came t<» the waters of Greenbriar : and, on hia return, reported thai he had found a stream whose waters ran to the west, and wh shores abounded in game. Thia intelligence excited the curiosity of the public; | "" we do not hear of any ii- attempt to prneirate into the wilderm-<. The first desultory efibrt was that of Jacob Martin and Ste- phen Sewell, wh«> wandered out to Greenbriar, and established themselves in a cabin apon its banks. It seems, however, that it" there be but two men in a country, they will find a subject for contention; at all events, it happened bo with Martin and Sewell, who quarreled — and the latter, for the sake of peace, quit- ted their cabin, ami took ap his abode in a hollow tree. In this situation the; wi re found by General Andrew Lewis, who, in the year 1757, proceeded to the Green- briar country, bo superintend the survey of a grant of one hundred thousand acres of land, made to a com- pany of individuals by the governor and council of Virginia. On enquiring of these eccentric beings, what could induce them to live separately in a wilder- - so distant from all other human beings, they replied, that a difference of opinion had induced them to part, ami that, since the division of interests, their intercourse had been more amicable. Sewell added, that each morning, when the} arose, Martin came forth from hia house, ami himself from the hollow tree, and they saluted each otherwith "Good morning, Mr. Martin"— ** Good morning, Mr. Sewell;" ■ practice 238 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. which he considered as conclusive evidence of the good understanding and mutual courtesy of the par- ties. Mr. Sewell, however, was not satisfied even in this agreeable neighbourhood, but removed about forty miles further west, where he was found by the Indians and killed. Previous to the year 1755, General Lewis had com- pleted the survey of about fifty thousand acres ; but, the war then commencing -"between England and France, the work was abandoned. In 1761, the Bri- tish government issued a proclamation commanding all the colonists within the bounds of Virginia, who had made settlements on the western waters, to remove from them, as those lands were claimed by the Indians, and good policy required that the government should prevent any interference with their rights. As this is one of a very few instances in which Great Britain even pretended to respect the rights of the aborigines, we must, in searching for the true cause of this order, endeavour to find some other than the one assigned. The prevention of bloodshed had not, heretofore, formed any part of the policy of the mother country, whose plan had rather been to render the colonists more de- pendent upon herself, by keeping them embroiled with the Indians, and by confining their settlements to the seaboard, where her own power could be most readily concentrated, and most vigorously exerted. But although this measure of the government check- ed the spirit of enterprise which had just then been awakened, and caused the abandonment of schemes for the colonisation of the western lands, which had been formed by gentlemen of wealth and education, it did >Ki:n in H "i nil. u M 1 . not entirely crush the oewlj kindled desire for explor- ing tin- delightful region. There is a tradition that a person, named M'Bride, visited Kentucky, and <"ut his name on a tree at the mouth of Kentucky river, id 1754. It' there Lb any truth in the rumour, it does not appear that he made any report which ua- believed, <>r by which others were induced t<> follow his adventurous footsteps. In \~, 17. Dr. Walker, a gentleman of Virginia, ted a small party to explore Powell's valley, east of 'he Laurel ridge, which ho called Cumberland mountain, li- ceivinc intelligence, from some source \\ nich is now not known, that the Ohio might ho reached, at no great uatanoe, 1»\ traveling in ;i northeastwardly di- rection, ho proceeded on that course until ho came to Big Sandy river, having entirely missed the Ohio and the fertile region of Kentucky. He returned home after a journey of prodigious labour, chiefly among the mountain-: and his report was rather calculated to repress than to excite curiosity. In L750, he crossed the Cumberland mountain, in company with Colby (hew, Ambrose Powell, and others, hut did not reach the Kentucky ri\ He made -. vera! subsequent i xcursions into this region^ and it i- probable that to this circumstance may be attributed (he mistakes which have boon made in reference to the date of hi- first \i-it. We adopt that which Mr. Butler, in his recent History of Ken- tucky, has. upon good evidence, proved to he the cor- rect o! It appears by a manuscript affidavit of Dr. Walker. which we have examined, that in the month of April 240 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 1750, he visited the waters of the Cumberland, and gave its present name to that river. Its original name was Shawanoe, and it. is greatly to be deplored that a designation at once euphonous and appropriate, should have been abandoned, without reason, for a foreign appellation. In Virginia, Lewis Evans made, and published a map of Kentucky, in 1752, from a description given him by the Indians. In 1766, James Smith visited Kentucky, but we know little of bis adventures. The first adventurer who is known to have pene- trated through Kentucky to the Ohio, was John Fin- ley, who, with a few companions, traversed this region in 1767. Of him, or his adventures, little is known. His account of the country — its extent, its fertility, the abundance of game, and the exuberance of the vegetation, were considered fabulous ; and his name would probably have been lost, had it not become connected with that of Daniel Boone, to whom he acted as guide in a subsequent expedition. Boone was a man of strongly marked character. There is no proof that he possessed great talents, or that he could have shone in any other station than that in which he was placed. His bodily vigour, his love of hunting, his courage, and his perfect equani- mity of mind under every vicissitude of fortune, were the prominent points in his character ; and his singu- lar adventures, with the fact of his being the first successful explorer of this region, have rendered his name celebrated. He was not a misanthrope, who retired to the woods because he was disgusted with SK I I< BBS OF THE H IN! . 2 11 the world, I >i 1 1 a man of social and benevolent feelings, of mild aii'l unassuming manners, and of strict m- rity. He was bold ;uir i m: p kst. 248 yisil to Kentucky, Boone cam" as the agent of tome wealth) individuals in North Carolina, who were de- sirous to speculate in these lands, and who selected him to make tin- first reconnoisance of the country, not only because be was an intrepid hnnter, but in con- sideration of bis judgment and probity. It is certain that lit- was thus employed immediateh after his re- turn, and that ho continued tor inan\ years to be en- d in the transaction of boainess for others, to the entire neglect of his personal aggrandisement. Be tin- a- it may, the adventures of these bold ex- plorers are full of romantic interest. Thev found the land filled with hostile Indian-, against whose arts they were obliged to keep a continual watch. By day they wandered with stealth} steps, adding to their boldness of purpose, the vigilance that ensures suc- cess, and at night they crept into the most secret coverts for repose; practising the arts of savage life for subsistence, and the Btratagems of border warfare for protection. Superior to the red men in the de- vices of their own sylvan strategy, they eluded, or beat them, and continued to roam through these blooming deserts, if not with impunity, at least with a degree of success that seems marvellous. Boone continued to explore the wilderness for two years, with no little variety of fortune, but with that indomitable perseverance which formed a leading trait in his character. Once, himself and a companion \\»re captured, and escaped ; more than once their camp was plundered; they were robbed of their arms and ammunition, and left to glean a subsistence as they might, without the weapons which in the back- 244 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. woods are necessaries, equally requisite in defending life, and procuring food. One of the party was killed, the rest returned home, except Boone, and his brother, the latter of whom having arrived since the disarming of the party, was able to supply the pioneer with a gun and ammunition. They wintered together in a cabin formed of poles and bark. In the spring of 1770, the brother returned to North Carolina, leaving Daniel Boone alone in the woods, the only white man known to be in Kentucky. If any proof was wanting, of the ardour with which Boone pursued his designs, or the courage that he imparted to others, it would be found in this separa- tion of the brothers ; the one singly undertaking a painful and dangerous journey, of several hundred miles, without a path or a guide, the other remaining alone in the midst of a wilderness, separated from the habitations of white men by a range of almost inac- cessible mountains, and surrounded by thousands of enemies, who eagerly sought his life, and daily traced his footsteps with unwearied hostility. The intrepid pioneer continued to rove through the forest, subsist- ing upon game, and eluding the Indians by cunning devices, until the return of his brother, in the July of the same year ; they explored the country together during the remainder of that year, again wintered in the wilderness, and in the spring of 1771 returned to their families. In 1769 Hancock Taylor, Richard Taylor, and others, descended the Ohio to the falls, and proceeded thence to New Orleans, and back to Virginia by sea. About the same time a party, consisting of about -K I r< ii i> 01 Tin: WW&T* - US forty hunters, Gram New Rirer, Holston, and Clinch, united in an expedition to tli»- west, and nine of the party, led by Col. James Knox, reached Kentucky. Th»-y penetrated t<» the waters of Green River, and the lower part of Cumberland. In the year 177:<, Thomafl BuHit, Hancock Taylor, and the ME 'Afees, ( g _ r ed with ardour and success in the business of exploring and settling Ke ntu c ky, and une cons])icuuus individuals in the new curnmunitv. 21* 246 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. CHAPTER II. Purchases from the Indians — Treaty of Fort Stanwix — Treaty of Lochaber — Purchases by individuals — The Transylvania Company. In the year 1774 commenced a series of events which exerted a decided influence on the early growth of the settlements in Kentucky, but which, in most of the published narratives of the histories of those times, are not mentioned, and in others, barely alluded to. As these facts will be new to the public, and as the writer has had the opportunity of investigating them carefully, from the original papers of the gentle- men concerned, placed in his hands through a source of unquestionable respectability, this fragment of the history of the pioneers will be developed with some degree of minuteness. A few preliminary observations, however, may be necessary to elucidate this subject with greater clear- ness. The several explorations of the country border- ing on the Ohio, to which we have alluded, — although they did not elicit any great amount of accurate infor- mation, either in respect to its extent or advantages, — threw into circulation a mass of reports which strongly excited the public mind, and induced the functionaries of Great Britain and of the colonies, as well as a num- ber of intelligent individuals, to turn their attention to this region. In 1768, at a treaty held with the Six IKBTCHSf OF i ii i WJ '-' 11 Nati<»n- by Sir William Johnson, the claim «>i* |] nations t«» all the lands on the southeast side of the Olno river, as far down aa the Cherokee river, and <»n 1 1 1 # • northwest side to the Great Miami, \\a- purchased by Great Britain. The title of the Six Nations, to any part of this country, seems to have been extreme- ly problematical. We are not aware of any that a savage people could have, but that of actual occupancy ; and there is no proof of their having ever resided in any part of it, or that their Conquests Were at any time extended into the Mississippi valley. It is pro- bable that Great Britain n the fifth of October of that year, a tnaty was accordingly held with those Indians, at Lochaber, in South Carolina, by John Stewart, super- 248 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. intendent of Indian affairs, acting under the auspices of the colony of Virginia, when a boundary line was established between the contracting parties, " begin- ning at Holstein river, six miles above Big Island, thence running in a direct line till it should strike the mouth of the Great Kenhawa." John Donaldson, the surveyor who traced this line by an appointment from the president and council of Virginia, states, in a manuscript affidavit which we have seen, " that, in the progress of the work, they came to the head of Louisa, now Kentucky river, when the Little Carpenter (a Cherokee chief) observed, that his nation delighted in having their lands marked out by natural boundaries ; and proposed that, instead of the line agreed upon at Lochaber as aforesaid, it should break off at the head of Louisa river, and run thence to the mouth thereof, and thence up the Ohio to the mouth of the Great Kenhawa." This boundary was accordingly agreed to by the surveyor. It is further stated, by the same authority, " that leave having been granted, by the king of Great Britain, to treat with the Cherokees for a more extensive boundary than that which had been established at the treaty of Hard Labour, provided the Virginians would be at the expense of purchasing the same, the general assembly voted the sum of £2500 sterling for that purpose, which sum was ac- cordingly paid to the Cherokees," in consideration, as we presume, of the additional lands gained by the al- teration of the line by the surveyor, and in confirmation of his act. These proceedings are only important now, as they show that, bv the treaties of Fort Stanwix and Loch- - 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 - • i 1 1 1 1 : m i - 1 . 249 aber, the conflicting Indian titles wren extinguished, south of the Ohio river, as far west as the Kentucky river. Ahum tliis period, a number <>t' enterprising gentle- men in Virginia and North Carolina began t«» turn their attention to the region weal of the Kentucky river, with the view of purchasing estates in fee simple, for themselvi -. din ctlj from the Indiana. We have before os a deposition, in manuscript, -of the celebrated Patrick Henry, in which In that, earh in tin- vear 177 1, he entered into an arrange- mm iit with the Hon. William Byrd, John Page, Esq., and Col. William Christian, all of Virginia, t"< »r the purpose of purchasing, from the Chemkees, >k some of their land (.n the waters of their own river iii Vir- ginia," and that they Benl a Mr. Kennedy t<> the Cher* Ltion, t<» ascertain the practicability of the scheme* The report of the agent was, that they 9 willing to ureal on the subject. M Not long after this," the document in our possession, ••and before any treaty was resolved on, the troubles with Great Britain seemed t<» threaten serious consequences; and this de- ponent became ■ memtger of the first Virginia conven- . and a member of the first continental congi upon which lie determined with himself to disclaim all concern and < onnection with Indian purchases, i""t- the following: that is t<> say, he was informed, >h<»rtly after In- arrival in congn is, <>f many purca of Indian land-, shares in most Of all of ulneh were offered to thi- deponent, and constant!} refused by him, because of the snormitj of the extent t(. which the bounds of those purchases were carried; that dis- 250 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. putes had arisen on the subject of these purchases, and that this deponent, being a member of congress and convention, conceived it improper for him to be concerned as a party in any of these partnerships, on which it was probable he might decide as a judge. He was farther fixed in his determination not to be concerned in any Indian purchases whatever, on the prospect of the present war, by which the sovereignty and right of disposal of the soil of America would probably be claimed by the American states." This deposition is dated June 4, 1777. Of the purchases alluded to in the above deposition, the most extensive, and the most important in its bear- ing upon the history of the pioneers, is that of the Transylvania company, composed of Richard Hender- son, William Johnston, Nathaniel Hart, John Luttrel, David Hart, John Williams, James Hogg, and Leonard Henley Bullock. These gentlemen, who were resi- dents of North Carolina, made certain preliminary arrangements, in the fall of the year 1774, with the " Overhill Cherokee Indians," for a treaty to be held the following year. In March, 1775, Colonel Hen- derson, acting for the company, met the chiefs of that nation, attended by about twelve hundred of their peo- ple, at a fort on the Watauga, the southeastern branch of the Holston river. A solemn council was held, and after several days spent in conference and full discussion of every matter relating to the purchase, the company obtained from the Indians, in exchange for a valuable consideration paid them in merchandise, two several deeds, signed by Okonistoto, their chief warrior, and by Atakullakulla and Savonooko, the next UUTCHM OF TD WMfi 25] in rank, in behalf of the nation, and with tin of the warriors present The two grants ccmpre- handed separate tract-, bring within the chartered limits of \ irginia and North Carolina. Hie first was bounded as follows : " Beginning on the < Ihio river, at the mouth of the Cantuckej Chenoee, or what, by the English, is called Louisa river; from thence running up the >;u«l river, and the iii< »— t northward]} fork of tlir same. i(» the bead spring thereof; thence a south- east course, t<> the t<»|» of the ridge of Powell's moun- tain; thence westwardly along the ridge of the said mountain, unto a point from which a northwest course will hit or strike the head spring of the most south- wardly branch of Cumberland river; thence down the said river, including all its waters, to the Ohio river. and up the said river, as it meanders, to the begin- ning." The other deed c prised a tract "beginning on the Holston river, where the course of Powell"- moun- tain Strikes the Basse : thence up the said river, a- it meanders, t<> where the \ irginia line crosses the same; thence westward along the line run by Donaldson, to a point BU English miles eastward of the long island in said ffolstOO n\er: thence a direct Course towards the month of the Great Canawav. until it reaches the top ridge of Powell's mountain : thence west* ard alon<_ r the -aid ridge to the place of beginning." The first of these grants, it will he perceived. i- much the largest, and comprises the whole .,f Ken- tucky BOUth of the river of that name, and hv far tiie greater part of the land- now contained in that State. The other includes a vast territory within the then 252 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. limits of North Carolina, lying on the rivers Holston, Clinch, Powel, and Cumberland, to the amount of many millions of acres. This purchase from the aborigines having been made previous to the declaration of independence, and the Transylvania company being put in possession of the territory by the Indians, the title of the grantees was supposed to be complete, and they proceeded im- mediately to make extensive arrangements for the set- tlement of their lands. Richard Henderson, Nathaniel Hart, and John Luttrel, were appointed to proceed to the new territory, which was called Transylvania, for the purpose of planting a colony ; and they accord- ingly set out, at the head of a small party, early in the year 1775. Daniel Boone was their guide ; and it seems to be extremely probable, though we have no direct evidence of the fact, that his previous visits to Kentucky were made at the suggestion of these gen- tlemen, and that their confidence in his report induced them to make the purchase. It is certain, from their letters to each other — many of which are in the pos- session of the writer — that they had obtained, from some source, a mass of accurate information with which ihe public was not acquainted ; and, as they would naturally resort to some confidential and secret means through which to obtain such intelligence, we give credit to a rumour which has reached us, that Boone was the agent employed for that purpose. These circumstances afford a new elucidation of the character of that intrepid pioneer ; and, although they take nothing from the strong points of his character, entirely dissipate the romantic theories of some of his BKSTCHSfl 01 I M I W*8T. biographers, with regard to the motives which Brat ted linn to become a wanderer in tin* western wil< < ilonel EJendersoD and In iafc - reached Powell's Valley, one of the most western settlerm ats of North Carolina, in the beginning of April 177"). at the head of fort) armed men, and an additional num- ber, probably, of non-combatants — for the) had under their charge forty pack-horses* This part) was pre- ceded b) a smaller one, under the direction of Daniel B tie, \\li<> had been employed to mark out a road. \\ e have before us s letter Qrom Colonel Henderson, to bis partners in North Carolina, dated Powell's Valley, April 3, 171">. from which we make the fol- lowing extracts, for the purpose of illustrating the difficult^ untered in this expedition, in the lan- guage of one a bo was concerned. •• Few enterprises of great consequence continue at all times to weai a favourable aspect j ours has met with tin common fate, from the incautious proceedi few headstrong and unthinking people. On the twent) fifth of March last, the Indians fired upon a small part) of nun. in camp, near the Louisa, killed two and put four others to the rout : and OD the *-'7th did Likewise on Daniel Boone's camp, and killed a white man and a negro on the Bpot, hut the Burvivors maintained their -round and saved their bagg But for a more particular account 1 refer you to .Mr. B roe's original letter on that occasion, which came to hand last night. ^ ou scarcer) need information that these accidents have a had effect with respect to H-."" •• \ ou observe from 254 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. Mr. Boone's letter the absolute necessity of our not losing one moment, therefore don't be surprised at not receiving a particular account of our journey with the several little misfortunes and cross accidents, which have caused us to be delayed so that we are still one hundred and thirty or one hundred and forty miles from our journey's end. We are all in high spirits, and on thorns to fly to Boone's assistance, and join him in defence of so fine and valuable a country. My only motives for stopping are, first, that you should receive a just representation of the affair, and secondly, to request your immediate assistance ; for want of workmen our wagons are laid aside at Cap- tain Martin's in this valley, the chief of our salt and all our saltpetre and brimstone are left behind." The letter from Daniel Boone, alluded to above, is also in our possession, and we copy it entire, as a valuable relic of that bold and successful pioneer — premising i that as Mr. Boone was less expert in the art of spelling than in the use of the rifle, we correct the orthography, except in the case of one or two words. The letter is addressed to " Colonel Richard Henderson — these with care," and runs as follows : " April the first 1775. " Dear Colonel, After my compliments to you, I shall acquaint you of our misfortune. On march the 25 a party of In- dians fired on my company about a half an hour be- fore day, and killed Mr. Twitty and his negro, and wounded Mr. Walker very deeply, but I hope he will recover. On March the 28 as we were hunting for -m ii 111 ■ 01 ill i: u i:st. 2W provisions we found Samuel Tate'fl sou, who gave us an account that the Indians fired <>n their camp on the 27 day. My brother and I went down and found two men killed and sculped, Thomas McDowell and Jere- miah McPeters. 1 have sen! ■ man down to all the lower companies in order to gather them all to the mouth of Otter Creek. M\ advise to you, sir, is to come or send as soon as possible. Four company is desired greatly, for the people are very uneasy, but are willing to stay and venture their liven with you. and now is the time to flusterate their' intentions and keep the country, whilst we are in it. If we give way to them now, it will ever be the case. This day we start from the battle ground, for the mouth of Otter Creek, where we shall immediately erect a fort, which will be done before you can come or send — then we can send ten men to meet you, if you send for them. I am sir your most obedient Daniel Boone. N. B. — We stood on the ground and guarded our .rage till day, and lost nothing. We have about fifteen miles to Cantuck at Otter Creek." This letter, with which we have taken no liberty ex- cept the one already indicated, is highly characteristic of the writer. It is a plain and sensible communication, from a cool headed man, who uses no more words than are necessary to exhr< ss his ideas. He takes no credit to himself for having beaten the Indians, nor makes any professions for the future, but modestly in- timates that the presence of the l« ader of the enter- * Meaning the Indians. 256 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. prise is necessary, to ensure its success. The sugges- tion " now is the time to flusferate" the intentions of the savages, " and keep the country while we are in it," is consistent with the known determination of his cha- racter ; while the prediction, " if we give way to them now, it will ever be the case," comports well with the prudence and common sense which always governed him, when acting in his proper sphere, as a hunter, or a warrior. We are even pleased with the commence- ment — " after my compliments" — and the conclusion, — " I am Sir, your most obedient" — which show that the sturdy woodsman, was not unacquainted with courtesies of good society. We shall only add, that the word Cantuck, refers to Kentucky river, and that the fort which he proposed to erect, was that which was afterwards called Boonsboro. The prospects of Colonel Henderson's party became still more gloomy, after the date of this letter to which we have referred. As they proceeded they met persons returning from Kentucky, discontented or panic-struck, who gave the most exaggerated accounts of the dangers from which they had escaped, and re- presented the situation of Boone, as being imminently precarious. The hired men became discouraged, and it required all the efforts of the leaders, to urge them forward. Every sound they heard, every groupe of wayworn woodsmen which they met, filled them with the apprehension that Boone had been obliged to aban- don his post, or that the approaching travellers brought some disastrous tidings of the pioneer. " It was owino- to Boone's confidence in us," savs Colonel Hen- derson in one of his letters, " and to the people's in -k I n ii i> < r mi | « i> r. Wt him, that a stand was ever attempted! t<> awail "ur OtHDing;" and it was natural that L r r«at uneasiness should be felt for him, in whom such eonfidenea «m placed, and w h oee poet, in advance el tin expedition, vu m important It became, therefore, desirable that he should be apprised of the approach of his friends, in order t hat he might 1>«' encouraged t.» hold hi- poet at all hazardfl until their arrival* Hut bow could the information be transmitted — what nx i would venture to traverse the wild, beset with Indians, and incur the various dangers of a solitary journey of one hundred and thirty miles, the distance which still intervened, between the travellers and the end of their journey! .Mr. William Cocke, observing the anxiety of his companions, generously volunteered to undertake the perilous mi--i<>n, and the oiler was too gratifying U) be refused. The day was dark and rainy, gloominess of the weather depressed the spirit- of the party, and the parting of -Mr. Cocke and his friends was marked by inauspicious forebodings. He was " fixed off," to use again the language of one of the party, "with a good Queen Anne's musket, plenty of ammunition, a Tomhock, a large Cuttoe knife, a Dutch blanket, and no small quantity of jerked beef." Thus equipped, and mounted on a good horse, he quitted his companions, and dashed into the forest. We shall only add that he performed his mission in safety and with success. Colonel Henderson reached Booashoro, with his party, a few days afterwards, and found the people their in a state of careless security, which evinced the most perfect self confidence. A small fort, which 258 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. the labour or two or three days would have rendered a sufficient protection against any sudden inroad of the Indians, had been suffered to remain unfinished and wholly useless, and it was not until this little colony had suffered severely from their indiscretion, that Fort Boonsboro was placed in a defensible con- dition. " We are now seated," says Colonel Henderson, in one of his letters, " at the mouth of Otter Creek, on the Kentucky, about 150 miles from the Ohio. To the west, about 50 miles from us, are two settlements, within six or seven miles of each other. There were some time ago about a hundred persons at the two places, though now perhaps there are not more than sixty or seventy, as many of them are gone up the Ohio for their families, &c, and some have returned by the way we came, to Virginia and elsewhere. These men in the course of hunting provisions, ex- ploring lands, &c, are some of them constantly out, and scour the woods from the banks of the river, near forty or fifty miles southward. On the opposite side of the river, and north from us about 40 miles, is a settlement on the crown lands of about nineteen per- sons, and lower down towards the Ohio, on the same side, there are some other settlers ; — how many, or at what place, I can't exactly learn." " Colonel Harrod, who governs the two first mentioned settlements, — and is a very good man, Colonel Floyd, the surveyor and myself, are under solemn engagements to commu- nicate with the utmost despatch, every piece of in- telligence, respecting danger, or sign of Indians, to each other. In case of invasion of either, both the IE! n in I -I i mi: U i -i ■ r parties are instantly to march, and relieve the distressed if possible. Add to this, that our country i- m fertile, the growth of grass and herbage bo ten- der and luxuriant, thai n is almost impossible for man or dog to travel, without leafing such a Bign, that you might gallop a horse on the trail. It is impossible for any number of persons t cember 177 ~>. from which we extract the following incident M Last Saturday, in the afternoon, Colonel CampbeH, with two lads, went over the river, where they parted, and went different ways over the lull. Al»»ut 300 yards from the fort. Colonel Campbell was fired «»u by a couple of Indians, who missed him. The gun was heard, the ahum given, and we got him safe to the fort. The two lads not returning that night, and having no guns with them, we had doubtful apprehensions, and not hearing any thing of them until Monday, we despatched a party of men to see if they could make any discovery, — 18 we had done on Saturday after Campbell returned. They found one killed and scalped about three mile- from town, the other we have yet heard nothing of, hnt suppose lie ha- shared the same fate. \\ <• hail at that time a i or fifteen men over the river, hunting in separate parties, though thej have since all returned except 260 ■ SKETCHES OF THE WEST. two. Whether they have been unsuccessful in their hunt, or have fallen into the hands of the enemy, is doubtful — the latter is apprehended. We yesterday despatched a party of twenty men under the command of Jesse Benton to scour the woods, and discover if possible whether they are satisfied with what they have done, or whether they are lurking about to do more mischief before they go. So far, this is a bad story, but hear the circumstances, and it will appear less unfavourable. Last October, at the treaty at Pittsburg, Cornstalk, king of the Shawnees, said that before application from the congress for a treaty, five or six of his men had set out for Kentucky, and he was apprehensive might do some damage, and that it was out of his power to apprise them of the terms of the treaty, as he did not know where to send a mes- senger to them ; but that he would stop them for the future, and if any of his men got killed on that ex- pedition it should give no umbrage. There was about that number of Indians seen near the war path about fifteen miles east of this place, two or three days be- fore the mischief was done, all which we knew nothing of until since, &c." While the Transylvania company was employed in the fruitless attempt to establish a proprietary govern- ment in Kentucky, a number of individuals were en- gaged, either singly or in companies, in exploring the same territory, as well as the adjacent lands north of the Kentucky river, and in settling such spots as they chose to occupy, without any reference to the claim of Henderson and his partners. Monopolies are never popular, and in our country none are less ac- ncm 01 tnwM 261 table than those which refer to real estate. Having new been accustomed t<» tin* exists nee among na of ■ privileged class, we do not readily submil to any measnre, the tendency of which is to confer exclusive advantages upon a few individuals. Our sympathies aiv with tin- majority, and our judgments predisposed in favour of that which confers the greatest benefit on the largest Dumber <>t* citizens. Our notions with gard to land are perhaps peculiar to our country ; l>ut they are natural and obviously just The opinion is as "1<1 as the states, that the soil is common property held for the public good, and that individuals should oot be permitted to appropriate t<» themselves mo* than they can use; with the exception only in favour of those, who accumulate large landed estates by ;1 industry, or purchase them in good faith, for valuable considerations. A grant therefore of enormous magnitude, either by the aborigines or the government, to s few gentlemen, for s consideration which, though technically valuable, was in feci incon- siderable, could not be otherwise than odious. The Indian title has Dover hen clearly defined, nor held in much esteem. Not having themselves verj char ideas of property, the savages could hardly impress others with distinct notion- of the rights which they held by a tenure so vagi* — whi< h they bartered awa^ with careless prodigality, and claimed to resume upon the slightest pretext* Among them the -oil had never been reduced to individual property ; their was no title l»\ allodium, <>r simple fee, and nothing that could he transferred to individuals* Their right was that of sovereignty, their possession that of 262 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. the whole tribe, and the only cession they could make was such as bv common usage is allowable alone be- tween sovereigns, or established governments. Such was the decision of Virginia at first, and of congress afterwards, upon the purchase of Henderson and com- pany ; and such seems to have been the common sense opinion formed by the adventurers who settled within the boundaries claimed by those gentlemen, in disre- gard of the treaty of the latter with the Cherokees. Nor was the time propitious to the design of those enterprising individuals. The revolutionary war had commenced, and with it the doubt and misrule in- cident to such a crisis. The adventurer to the wilds of Kentucky must have possessed a prophetic spirit, as well as a more than ordinary knowledge, political and legal, to have been able to decide between the proprietary rights of the Cherokees, and the six nations, the Transylvania company, and the state of Virginia, the congress, and the crown of Great Britain ; and to select from so great a number, the lord paramount under whom it would be most safe to hold. The obvious consequence was, that the Vir- ginians who emigrated took out titles under their own state, the North Carolinians who came at the invita- tion of Henderson and company purchased from them, while a large class took possession of such tracts as suited them, determined to hold them against all adverse claimants, and to perfect their titles under the authority which should ultimately prove success- ful. This then was the first of the numerous party divi- sions, by which the peace of Kentucky has been dis- sKK.n iu:s oi i ii, w i - 1 . turbed, and ber proeperit) impeded \ and the early introduction of factional discussions ma) !>«• regarded M baring been not a little ominous of the future his- tor) of the state. AJthough little baa been published in reference to those earl) differences, are find, from the documents in our possession, that there was in tact much angf) controversy, between the parties u lio re- spectively admitted «»i domed tin' ralidit) of the i siun to Henderson ami company, and we believe that the germ of much subsequent dissension was un- happily planted at thai time, lint it is gratifying t<» ohm nre, that however they might t. 265 of Roonesboro six members, for Harrodsbnrgh four, for the Boiling Spring settlement four, for the town of St. Asaph four, and appointed their meeting for the purpose aforesaid, on the aforesaid 23rd of May, Umo Dom. 1776, and : It being certified to us here this day by the Secre- tary,* that the following persons were returned as duly elected for the several towns and settlements, to wit : For Boonesboro — Squire Boone, Daniel Boone, Wil- liam Cocke, Samuel Henderson, William Moore, and Richard Calloway. For Harrodsburgh — Thomas Slaughter, John Ly the, Valentine Harmon, and James Douglass. For Boiling Spring settlement — James Harrod, Na- than Hammond, Isaac and Azariah Davis, For the town of St. Asaph — John Todd, Alexander Spotswood Dandridge, John Floyd, and Samuel Wood ; Present — Squire Roone, Daniel Boone, &c," (re- peating all the above names,) who took their seat** at convention : The house unanimously chose Colonel Thomas Slaughter chairman, and Matthew Jewett clerk ; and after divine service was performed by the Rev. John Lythe, the house waited on the proprietors, and ac- quainted them that they had chosen Mr. Thomas Slaughter chairman, and Matthew Jewett clerk, of which they approved ; and Colonel Richard Henderson in behalf of himself, and the rest of the proprietors, * An officer appointed by the proprietors, corresponding with a secretary of state. vol. i — 23 266 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. opened the convention with a speech, a copy of which? to prevent mistakes, the chairman procured. Ordered, the same speech be read — Read the same which is as follows : [We omit the speech, the answer of the convention, and the replication of Colonel Henderson, which are too long to be inserted in this place.] On motion made, ordered, that Mr. Todd have leave to bring in a bill for the establishment of courts of judicature, and regulating the practice therein ; ordered, that Mr. Todd, Mr. Dandridge, Mr. Calloway, and Mr. Henderson, do bring in a bill for that purpose. On motion of Mr. Douglass, leave is given to bring in a bill for regulating a militia ; ordered, that Mr. Floyd, Mr. Harrod, Mr. Cocke, Mr. Douglass, and Mr. Hite, be a committee for that purpose. On motion of Mr. Daniel Boone, leave is given to bring in a bill for preserving game, &c. ; ordered, that Mr. Boone, Mr. Davis, Mr. Harmon, Mr. Hammond, and Mr. Moore, be a committee for that purpose. The bill for establishing courts of judicature, and regulating the practice therein, brought in by the committee, and read by Mr. Todd — passed the first time — ordered to be referred for a second reading. The bill for establishing and regulating a militia, brought in by the committee, read by Mr. Floyd — ordered to be read by the clerk — passed the first time — ordered to be referred for a second reading. The bill for preserving game, brought in by the committee, ordered to be read by the clerk — read, and passed the first time — ordered to be referred for a second reading. -ki n in - of tin: ui>t. Ordered, that the convention be adjourned until to- morrow, six o'clock. •Jiiih May. .Met according to adjournment. Mr. Robert Mc Afec appoints nt at arms* Ordered, that the sergeant at arms bring John Guess before this convt intion, to answer, for an insult offered Colonel Richard Calloway. The bill for regulating a militia, read the second time, and ordered to be engrossed. The bill for establishing courts of judicature, and regulating the practice therein, read a second time — ordered to be recommitted, and that 3Ir. Dandridge, Mr. Todd, Mr. Henderson, and Mr. Calloway, be a committee to take it into consideration. On motion of Mr. Todd, leave is given to bring in an attachment bill — ordered, that Mr. Todd, Mr. Dan- dridge, and Mr. Douglass, be a committee for that purpose. The bill for establishing writs of attachment, read by the clerk, and passed the first time — ordered to be referred for a second reading. On motion of Mr. Dandridge, leave is given to bring in a bill to ascertain clerks' and sheriffs' fees. The said bill was read, and passed the first time — ordered to be referred for the second reading. On motion made by Mr. Todd, ordered, that Mr. Todd, Mr. Lythe, Mr. Douglass, and Mr. Hite, be a committee to draw up a compact between the proprie- tors and the people of this colony. On motion of Mr. Lythe, leave is given to bring in a bill to prevent profane swearing and Sabbath break- ing — The same read by the clerk, ordered, that it be 268 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. recommitted, and that Mr. Lythe, Mr. Todd, and Mr. Harrod, be a committee to make amendments. Mr. Guess was brought before the convention, and reprimanded by the chairman. Ordered, that Mr. Todd and Mr. Harrod wait on the proprietors, to know what name for this colony would be agreeable. Mr. Todd and Mr. Harrod re- ported, that it was their pleasure that it should be called Transylvania. The bill for ascertaining clerks' and sheriffs' fees, read a second time, passed — and ordered to be en- grossed. The attachment bill read a second time, and ordered to be engrossed. A bill for preserving game, read the second time, and passed — ordered to be recommitted, and that Mr. Todd, Mr. Boone, and Mr. Harrod, be a committee to take it into consideration. The militia bill read a third time, and passed. On motion of Mr. Todd, leave is given to bring in a bill for the punishment of criminals — ordered, that Mr. Todd, Mr. Dandridge, and Mr. Lythe, be a com- mittee for that purpose. The bill for establishing courts of judicature, and regulating the practice therein, read a second time, and ordered to be engrossed. On motion of Mr. Boone, leave is given to bring in a bill for improving the breed of horses. Ordered, that Mr. Boone, Mr. Davis, and Mr. Hammond, bring in a bill for that purpose. The bill for ascertaining clerks' and sheriffs' fees, read a third time, and passed* -ki n in M OF Tin: Ifl - 269 The bill for establishing writs of attachment, read a third tunc and passed* On motion, ordered, thai Mr. Todd have leave to absent himself from this house. The bill foi the punishment of criminals, brought in (>v the committee, read by the clerk, passed the i. time, and ordered to 1>«^ read a second lime. The bill for establishing courts of judicature, and regulating the practice therein, read the fhird time with amendments, and passed. The bill for improving the breed of horses, brought m by Capt. Boone, read the first time, passed, and or- dered to be for consideration, dec Ordered, that the convention adjourn until to-morrow, -i\ o'clock. Met according k) adjournment. The bill to prevent profane swearing and Sabbath- breaking, read the second time, with amendments ; ordered to be engrossed. The bill for the punishment of criminals, brought in and read, passed the second time ; ordered to be en- grossed. The bill for the improvement of the breed of horses was read a second time, and ordered to be engrossed. Ordered, that Mr. Harrod, Mr. Boone, and Mr. Cocke, wait on the proprietors, and beg they will not indulge any person whatever in granting them lands on the present terms, unless they comply with the former proposals of settling the country, Ovc. On motion of Squire Boone, leave is given to bring in a bill to p r es er v e the range; ordered, that he have leave to bring in a bill for that purpofl 29* 270 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. The following message was received from the pro- prietors, to wit : To give every possible satisfaction to the good peo- ple, your constituents, we desire to exhibit our title deed from the aborigines and first owners of the soil in Transylvania, and hope you will cause an entry to be made of the exhibition in your journals, including the corners and abutments of the lands or country contained therein, so that the boundaries of our colony may be known and kept on record. Richard Henderson. Transylvania, 27th May, 1775. Ordered, that Mr. Todd, Mr. Douglass, and Mr. Hite, inform the proprietors that their request will be complied with ; in consequence of which Colonel Hen- derson personally attended the convention with Mr. John Farrow, attorney in fact for the head warriors or chiefs of the Cherokee Indians, who, in presence of the convention, made livery and seisin of all the lands in a deed or feofment then produced, bearing date the 7th day of March last, 1775. [We omit the boundaries which are here set forth on the record, having already given them to our readers in another place.] A bill for preserving the range, brought in by the committee and read, passed the first time ; ordered to be laid by for second consideration. The bill to prevent profane swearing and Sabbath- breaking, read the third time, and passed. Ordered, that Mr. Calloway and Mr. Cocke wait on -Kr.T< HES OF THE W i ~~1 the proprietors with the laws that have passed, for their perusal and approbation. The committee, appointed to draw up the compact between the proprietors and the people, brought in and read it, as follows, viz: Win reas,it is highly necessary, for the peace of the proprietors and the security of the people of this colony, that the powers of the one and the liberties of the other be ascertained; We, Richard Henderson, Nathaniel Hart, and J. Luttrel, on behalf of ourselves, as well as the other proprietors of the colony of Tran- sylvania, of the one part — and the representatives of the people of said colony, in convention assembled, of the other part — do most solemnly enter into the fol- lowing contract or agreement, to wit : 1. That the election of delegates in this colony be annual. 2. That the convention may adjourn, and meet again on their own adjournment ; Provided, that in cases of great emergency, the proprietors may call together the delegates before the time adjourned to ; and, if a majority do not attend, they may dissolve them and call a new one. 3. That, to prevent dissention and delay of busin g . one proprietor shall act for the whole, or some one delegated by them for that purpose, who shall always ride in the colony. 4. That there be perfect religious freedom and gene- ral toleration; Provided, that the propagators of any doctrine or tenets, evidently tending to the subversion of our laws, shall, for such conduct, be amenable to. and punished by, the civil court-. 272 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. 5. That the judges of the superior or supreme courts be appointed by the proprietors, but be sup- ported by the people, and to them be answerable for their malconduct. 6. That the quit-rents never exceed two shillings sterling per hundred acres. 7. That the proprietors appoint a sheriff, who shall be one of three persons recommended by the court. 8. That the judges of the superior courts have, without fee or reward, the appointment of the clerks of this colony. 9. That the judges of the inferior courts be recom- mended by the people, and approved by the proprie- tors, and by them commissioned. 10. That all other civil and military officers be within the appointment of the proprietors. 11. That the office of surveyor-general belong to no person interested, or a partner in this purchase. 12. That the legislative authority, after the strength and maturity of the colony will permit, consist of three branches, to wit : the delegates or representatives chosen by the people ; a council, not exceeding twelve men, possessed of landed estate, who reside in the colony, and the proprietors. 13. That nothing with respect to the number of delegates from any town or settlement shall hereafter be drawn into precedent, but that the number of repre- sentatives shall be ascertained by law, when the state of the colony will admit of amendment. 14. That the land office be always open. 15. That commissions, without profit, be granted without fee. -ki 1 1 in:- <>i mi: W i - 1 • "-' ' ■ 16. That the fees and salaries of -ill officers ap- pointed bj the proprietors, be settled and regulated by the laws of the country . 17. That tli-- convention have the sole power of raising and appropriating all public moneys, and elect- ing their treasun r. 18. That, for a shorl time, till the state of the colony will permit to ni some place of lidding the convention which shall be permanent, the place of meeting shall l> 1 upon 1" twe< d the proprietors and the convention. To the faithful, and religious, and perpetual observ- ance of all and every of the above articles, the said proprietors, on behalf of themselves as well as those absent, and the chairman of the convention on behalf of them and their constituents, have ^ereunto inter- changeably set their hands and affixed their seals, the twenty-seventh day of -May, one thousand seven hun- dred and seventy-six. ELichajld Henderson. [Sea?.] \ \ i n \ mi l Hart. [Seal.] J. Luttbel. [Seal] T. Slaughter, Chair'n. [Seal] A bill for improving the breed of horses, read the third time and passed. The hill f«>r the punishment of criminals, read the third time and passed. The hill to preserve the range, read the second time, and ordered t<» !>•• engrossed. Ordered thai Mr. Lythe wait on Colonel Henderson and the rest of the proprietors, with the hill for esta- 274 SKETCHES OE THE WEST. blishing courts of justice and regulating the practice therein. The bill to preserve the range read the third time and passed. Ordered, that Colonel Calloway wait on the propri- etors with the bill for preserving the range. Ordered, that a fair copy of the several bills, passed into laws, be transmitted to every settlement in this colony that is represented. Ordered, that the delegates of Boonesboro be a committee to see that all the bills that are passed be transcribed, in a fair hand, into a book for that purpose. Ordered, that the proprietors be waited on by the chairman, acquainting them that all the bills are ready for signing. The following bills this day passed and signed by the proprietors, on behalf of themselves and their part- ners, and the chairman of the convention, on behalf of \ mself and the other delegates : 1. An act for establishing courts of jurisdiction and regulating the practice therein. 2. An act for regulating a militia. 3. An act for the punishment of criminals. 4. An act to prevent profane swearing, and Sabbath breaking. 5. An act for writs of attachment. 6. An act for ascertaining clerks' and sheriffs' fees. 7. An act to preserve the range. 8. An act for improving the breed of horses. 9. An act for preserving game. All the above mentioned acts were signed by the chairman and proprietors, except the act for ascertain- IXI i ■ ii I mi: H i in" clerks' and sherinV fees, which was omitted by the clerk- not giving it in with the P St Ordered, thai a( the next m of delegates, if any member be absent and doth not attend, that the >le choose one to serve in the room of such absent member. Ordered, that the convention be adjourned until the first Thursday in September next, then t<» meet at lesboro. M LTTHEW .1 i:\vitt, Clerk. We present thii as ;i creditable specimen of the in- telligence and disposition of the pioneers; affording as it does, the most ample testimony, that they were not a hand of mere lawless adventurers, unable to appre- ciate the advantages of social order, and eager to i scape the restraints of civil subordination. We see here the same hardy men, who with infinite peril and fatigue had conquered for themselves a resting place in the wilderness, ass mbling in a rude forest fortresf to commence the structure of their social compact. With no precedent- before them, with neither laws nor lawyers, instructed only by their own perceptions of ri"-ht and wrong, and their recollections of the laws under which they had lived, they enact a simple code whose provisions evince a clear understanding of the elementary principles of free government, while its brevity the confidence reposed by these brave men in each other. Their convention is organised in the usual manner, and decently opened with prayer, and three days Jpeut in the utmost harmony in the discharge of the KI i« Ill:- OF THE WEST. 277 the state of Virginia never ceased to exercise her ri^ht or sovereignty, when occasions for Legislation rented. Colonel Henderson and his partners, find- ing it impracticable to sustain themselves in the <\- ecutive station which they bad assnmed, and in which the settler^ seemed indisposed to >n j >jk>i t them, I soon abandoned the idea of claiming any political rank, in virtue of their purchase, and appear to have employed themselves thereafter in endeavouring to procure the acknowledgment of their title to the land as owner-. Even lhi< however was denied them by the state of Virginia, whose politicians, wisely for ing the evil of so gigantic a monopoly, and the anti- republican tendency of the great landed estates which would be established in a few families l>y thi< pro- cedure, promptly refused to sanction any of the acta of the proprietors or people of Transylvania, or to admit the validity of any title to the soil not emanat- ing from the pa Among a number of re- solutions, and other expressions of opinion, on the part of Virginia, we find the following declaration which briefly includes the result of the whole discus- sion. " In the house of del _ ' s, Wednesday, the 4th of November^ 1778. Resnlted — That all purchases of lands, made or to be made, of the Indian-, within the chartered bounds of this commonwealth, as described by the constitu- tion or form of government, by any private persons not authorised by public authority, are void. Resoh&d — That the purchases heretofore made bj Richard, Henderson and Company, of that tract of land vol. i — 'J 1 278 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. called Transylvania, within this commonwealth, of the Cherokee Indians, is void ; but as the said Richard Henderson and Company have been at very great ex- pense in making the said purchase, and in settling the said lands, by which this commonwealth is likely to receive great advantage, by increasing its inhabitants, and establishing a barrier against the Indians, it is just and reasonable to allow the said Richard Hender- son and Company a compensation for their trouble and expense." Tuesday, November 17th, 1778, " Agreed to by the Senate." After endeavouring for several years, with great as- siduity, to procure a reversal of the proposition con- tained in the first of these resolutions, and a recogni- tion of their purchase, they were obliged, however reluctantly, to abandon all hope of possessing this noble domain ; and they now applied for the remune- ration to which the legislature of Virginia had ac- knowledged them to be so well entitled. More than twenty years elapsed before even this was granted ; but Virginia finally granted to the Transylvania com- pany, a large tract of land upon the waters of Green river, and included in the boundaries of the county of Henderson, which was afterwards formed. Similar proceedings, and a like result took place in North Carolina, in reference to so much of the pur- chase from the Cherokees as lay within the limits of that state. The narrative which we have introduced forms but an episode in the history of Kentucky. While a few enterprising gentlemen were maturing splendid schemes BKE l'< 11 1 — "1 l II I w ES 1 ■ for the aggrandisement of their posterity, the sti of population rolled on withoul interruption* The settlers seem to bare placed little confidence in the titl* - ef Henderson and his associates, and we Bcarcely find it allnded to in the earlj records or traditionary history of this region. It will appear, however, upon rring to some of the papers which we append to \\m< volume, that the services of those gentlemen were important Henderson, Williams, Luttrel, and Hart. were really the pioneer*, who opened the road to the fertile shores of the Kentucky aver, and erected the first fortress in that beautiful though perilous wild. Boon*' was their agent — bold, faithful, deserving — yet a subordinate actor under other mm — the chief of their hunters, and the leader perhaps of the military arm of their expedition. But his talents were of the useful kind, his character was popular, and his achievements gained for him the confidence of the people; and in all that relates to the perils of the wilderness, ami the stirring events of the border wars, Boone was a chieftain of high repute. He was the guide who led the way to the desert, and whose name was perhaps best known, though some of those who were associated with him in the great enterprise, were more intelligent, and equally influential. Other ad- venturers followed, and settled around him, looking up to him as their shield in danger, and at all times as their counsellor and guide. The savages continued to an- nex- them with unceasing hostility; sometimes laying t«. the fort, frequently attempting to surprise it, and continually lurking about in small parties, way- la\iiiL r the butters, assailing those engaged in agricul- 880 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. ture, and capturing the females and children in sight of the fortress. We should exceed our limits, and unnecessarily shock the feelings of the reader, if we should detail all the achievements of Boone, the pri- vations of himself and his companions, and the bar- barities of their unrelenting toes. He continued to sustain himself in the midst of danger, displacing, in ever}- emergency, that consummate skill and patient courage, which elevated him above ordinary men ; and distinguished by a gentleness of manners, and a benevolence of heart and action, which secured the affections of his friends, and won respect even from his ferocious enemies. From this time the forests of Kentucky besan to be rapidly peopled. The settlers came in small parties, and spread over the whole country, each little colony erecting its own fort, and appointing its own leader. The Indians continued to harass them. The latter were now more than ever inflamed with rage and jea- lousy against the Americans, by the arts of the Bri- tish agents, who supplied them with arms and ammu- nition, bribed them to hostility by valuable presents, and poisoned their minds by incendiary speeches. The whole district of Kentucky exhibited scenes of blood- shed. We must condense these events. The name of Boone is the most conspicuous among the pioneers, because he was the earliest adventurer to the shores of the Ohio, and continued longest to brave the perils of the forest. But there were others who were superior to him in education and strength of mind, and his T< DM «'F THE WEST. equ; -pect- Boone was remarkable for the perfect equanih th which he bore c tria! alarmed nor despondent. O re allured to the wilderness bv ambition or cupidit f wealth, or lands, or fame : but - enjoyed th of the pioneer, and to have dwelt in the woods from choice. Others hunted down the Indians with ran- corous hatred : Boone on! led himself against their assaults, and never troubled his head about them while they let him alone. H - _ x>d humoured, social, and disposed to live in quiet ; love of p rather than fondness for war. made him a dweller on the frontier : and when the restraints of society } ed around him. when the cavils of the neighbourhood became vexatious, or any other cause rendered his re- sidence disagreeable, his simple remedy was to plunge farther into the woods. H was abstemious in his habits, and a close observer of nature : and without any brilliancy or much grasp of intellect, he had a ifl deal of that practical good sense which may be supposed to have existed in the mind of a person of :nperament, who thought much, spoke little, and acted with deliberation: i hole life was a series of joi. a • danger, and vicissitude, and whose ant eye was constantly employed in watching the appearances of nature, the habits of animals, the changes of the season, and the movements of hostile men. These are the characteristics of the backwoods- man : they wer lb _iy developed in all those that 282 SKETCHES OF THE WEST. accompanied or followed Boone, but in him they were less adulterated, because his mind was not distracted by the passions and cares that perplex other men. In a subsequent chapter, when we come to speak of the character of the western population, we shall notice the peculiarities of this race, their arts, in- dustry, and mode of life. END OF VOL. i. EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. The engraving is made from an original plan of Booncsboro, in the band-writing of Colonel Henderson. The fort was composed of four lines of cabins, those at the corners being larger than the others, and projecting so as to form bastions. The dimensions of the enclosure are not stated ; but if we allow an average of twenty feet for each cabin and opening, the iength of the fort must have been about two hundred and sixty, and the breadth one hundred and eighty feet i